Environmental Justice Clinic Filing Urges New Mexico Court of Appeals to Uphold State Constitutional Right to Healthy Environment

SOUTH ROYALTON, Vermont (December 20, 2024) — A coalition of 27 environmental law and constitutional law professors and experts have asked a New Mexico appellate court to uphold its state constitutional right of protection for air, water, environment and other natural resources, and the fundamental rights of its people.

An amicus brief filed by the Environmental Justice Clinic at Vermont Law and Graduate School on behalf of this coalition urges the New Mexico Court of Appeals to uphold the people’s right to a clean environment safe from oil and gas pollution under the state’s constitution. There are 70,000 oil and gas production sites in New Mexico, contributing to some of the worst air quality in the country and harming the health and wellbeing of New Mexico communities.

“As someone with family and many loved ones in New Mexico, it was an honor to contribute to this groundbreaking case fighting for a long-overdue recognition of the State’s constitutional duty to protect its citizens from the harms caused by the oil and gas industry in the state,” said Professor Mia Montoya Hammersley, director of the VLGS Environmental Justice Clinic.

“State courts across the country have not shied away from their obligation to enforce standards and legislative obligations set out in state constitutions, in contexts ranging from welfare to education to the environment,” the filing emphasized. “In exercising that duty, these courts ensure that the directives enshrined in constitutional language and endorsed by the people of the state, are implemented and respected.”

In part, New Mexico’s Pollution Control Clause in the state constitution provides, “The protection of the state’s beautiful and healthful environment is hereby declared to be of fundamental importance to the public interest, health, safety and the general welfare,” and mandates that the legislature work to maintain it, according to the filing.

The case began in 2023. According to court records, a coalition of Indigenous people, youth and members of communities on the frontlines of oil and gas development alleged they were “injured by the state’s long-standing permitting of oil and gas production and pollution without establishing a constitutionally compliant statutory, regulatory and enforcement framework that protects New Mexico’s air, water, and other natural resources, as well as the lives and liberties of the frontline, Indigenous and youth plaintiffs.”

A judge denied a motion to dismiss the case by the state and a number of its agencies and granted the executive branch defendants’ request that it authorize interlocutory appeal to the Court of Appeals. Last week’s filing provided support for the plaintiffs’ position.   

“Innovative state-based litigation efforts like these will become even more vital during the next administration,” Christophe Courchesne, director of the VLGS Environmental Advocacy Clinic and interim director of its Environmental Law Center, said. “Kudos to Professor Montoya Hammersley, Professor Emeritus Pat Parenteau (an amicus scholar included in the case) and the teams within the Environmental Justice Clinic and Environmental Advocacy Clinic for their dedication to the cause. This was a powerful collaboration between VLGS’s clinics, our student clinicians, and leading scholars of state constitutional law and environmental protection, led by Professors Martha Davis and James May.”

VLGS Environmental Justice Clinic director Mia Montoya Hammersley and student attorneys Charlotte Bieri, Savannah Collins and Hannah Ziomek, as well as VLGS Environmental Advocacy Clinic director Christophe Courchesne and student attorney Lauren Carita contributed to the brief.  Martha F. Davis, University Distinguished Professor of Law and co-director of the Center for Law and Justice at Northeastern University School of Law, and James R. May, the Richard S. Righter Distinguished Professor of Law at Washburn University School of Law were the brief’s lead drafters.

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Vermont Law and Graduate School, a private, independent institution, is home to a law school that offers ABA-accredited residential and online hybrid JD programs and a graduate school that offers master’s degrees and certificates in multiple disciplines, including programs offered by the Maverick Lloyd School for the Environment, the Center for Justice Reform and other graduate-level programs emphasizing the intersection of environmental justice, social justice and public policy. Both the law and graduate schools strongly feature experiential clinical and field work learning. For more information, visit vermontlaw.edu, Facebook and Instagram.