New Mexico Supreme Court Rules Against Compensating Businesses for Pandemic Losses

New Mexico’s Supreme Court ruled that the state is not obligated to compensate businesses that lost money during the coronavirus pandemic, the Associated Press (AP) reports.

The court ruled in favor of Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham’s administration, which was facing 20 lawsuits over aggressive emergency health restrictions. Grisham had urged the Supreme Court to block the lawsuits.

The state’s emergency health restrictions include shutting down in-person learning at K-12 schools for more than a year, closing in-person restaurant service, and closing public venues and nonessential businesses, according to AP.

Justice Shannon Bacon said in the unanimous opinion that the current public health orders “are a reasonable exercise of the police power to protect the public health.”

The decision reads, “Occupancy limits and closure of certain categories of businesses, while certainly harsh in their economic effects, are directly tied to the reasonable purpose of limiting the public’s exposure to the potentially life-threatening and communicable disease.”

A. Blair Dunn, an attorney for a coalition of small businesses, told AP that New Mexico’s Supreme Court is overstepping its authority in denying compensation to businesses.