## Facts

- The Environmental Improvement Board (EIB) adopted an air-quality regulation after an extended rulemaking process and filed it with the State Records Center and Archives for publication in the New Mexico Register under the State Rules Act.
- The Water Quality Control Commission (WQCC) adopted and filed water-quality regulations with the Records Center for the same publication process.
- Under the Records Center’s publication schedule, the filed regulations were set for publication in the January 14, 2011 issue of the New Mexico Register.
- After taking office, the Governor issued an executive order suspending “all proposed and pending rules and regulations” under the Governor’s authority for ninety days.
- Citing the executive order, the Acting Secretary of the New Mexico Environment Department asked the State Records Center to delay publication of the EIB and WQCC regulations, and the Records Center removed them from the scheduled publication.
- Environmental groups supporting the regulations filed original petitions for writs of mandamus in the New Mexico Supreme Court to compel publication and to prevent interference by the Governor and the Secretary.
- The Governor and Secretary argued, among other defenses, that petitioners lacked standing and failed to exhaust administrative remedies.

## Issues

1. Whether the State Records Administrator had a clear, indisputable, and mandatory duty to publish regulations properly filed by the EIB and WQCC, despite an executive-branch request to delay publication.
2. Whether the Governor’s executive order applied to regulations promulgated by the EIB and WQCC.
3. Whether mandamus was available given challenges to standing and arguments that administrative remedies had not been exhausted.

## Decision

- The New Mexico Supreme Court granted the petitions and issued a writ of mandamus.
- The court held the State Records Administrator had a clear, indisputable, and mandatory duty to publish the duly filed EIB and WQCC regulations according to the Records Center’s schedule.
- The court held the executive order did not apply because it reached only rules and regulations under the Governor’s authority, and the EIB, WQCC, and the Records Center were not under that authority for these functions.
- The court rejected defenses based on standing and exhaustion because petitioners were directly affected by nonpublication and the relief sought was not meaningfully available through ordinary administrative channels.

## Legal Principles

- Mandamus lies to compel performance of a clear, indisputable, and mandatory ministerial duty when no adequate alternative remedy exists.
- Once an issuing authority properly files a regulation with the State Records Center under the State Rules Act and governing publication rules, the State Records Administrator must publish it within the prescribed timeframe and lacks discretion to delay publication based on requests from other executive officials.
- A gubernatorial executive order suspending proposed or pending regulations applies only to agencies and regulations within the Governor’s supervisory authority and does not extend to independent boards and commissions whose rulemaking authority is assigned by statute.

## Conclusion

The court ordered publication of the EIB and WQCC regulations, holding that the State Records Administrator’s publication duty was mandatory and that executive-branch officials could not use an executive order to halt or delay the publication of regulations promulgated by independent statutory bodies.


New Energy Economy, Inc. v. Martinez, 247 P.3d 286 (N.M. 2011)