Senate Judiciary (SJC)

The scope of work for the Senate Judiciary Committee (SJC) is extremely broad, covering all aspects of constitutional, statutory and administrative law.  All of these are relevant to conservation policy, so advocates spend a lot of time in front of this committee.

Chaired by Senator Richard Martinez, the Judiciary Committee is one of the more friendly to environmental and public health issues, ensuring that proposed legislation passes constitutional muster, and affords appropriate access and protections to New Mexico residents and communities.  This includes adoption of new protections, as well as enforcement of existing laws.

Much of the focus in SJC this year was on efforts to dismantle existing safeguards and, fortunately, most of them were defeated there.  Some of them were blatantly unconstitutional, while others were simply bad policy because they undermined public participation in the rule-making process.

One of the difficulties of this committee is that, because of their heavy workload, they frequently have to meet at the same time as other committees, especially near the end of session.  Unfortunately, that means that it’s difficult for all committee members to be present for consideration of important legislation.

Chair:  Sen. Richard Martinez
Vice-Chair:  Sen. Peter Wirth
Ranking Member:  Sen. William Payne