Except in the Trump Administration and Doña Ana County, a key principle of our country is due process: the government can’t take away a right without fair notice, a fair hearing before someone neutral, and a route to appeal.
If they think you stole something, you get a court trial with a lawyer, and can appeal. Taking someone’s welfare benefits or medical license also requires “due process.” That distinguishes us from the Nazis, Saddam, or Attila.
The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution is important. It’s first. You have a right to free speech, although it can be limited in schools or jails. Public input at the city council or county commission is a “limited public forum” at which you have a right to speak. That’s a Constitutional right the Supreme Court has long recognized.
You also have a First Amendment right to videotape officials at work, including police officers, although ICE might kill you for exercising that right in Minneapolis. Surprisingly, our county might jail you for it.
A local gadfly videotaped county officials more than they wanted to be videotaped. County Manager Scott Andrews and Interim County Attorney Cari Neill got angry and sent him a “trespass” letter purporting to ban him from county meetings for vaguely-alleged intrusive videotaping. No specifics; no hearing; no appeal.
That’s unusual. The courts have held that banning someone from county public-input requires due process: clearer charges, a fair hearing, and an appeal procedure. When folks pointed that out, Andrews/Neill said they were the bosses and knew what they were doing. I doubted that.
When the trespassed citizen attended a meeting, wearing a comical false mustache and waiting quietly in line to speak, they called police. LCPD declined, perhaps wisely. When they called Sheriff Kim Stewart, she probably had no choice. (She’s said on radio she had to act, whether she agrees with county officials or not.) The citizen was then arrested and jailed – and kept in jail for a day.
Preparing this column, I repeatedly asked the county officials about their conduct. I’d litigated this stuff as a lawyer since before they were born. And any fool can ask Chat GPT “What due process is required constitutionally for a county to ban a citizen from public meetings?” I’d also talked to relevant organizations. But I figured maybe I’d missed something. I sent them a long letter asking appropriate questions. Pathetically, they said they couldn’t say anything at all because there might be a lawsuit. I’ve rarely seen a public entity that unable to address such an issue. Most good lawyers, when you ask them to explain their positions and the legal support, do so readily – to convince you or learn their weaknesses. These folks’ silence isn’t a great sign that they have a clue.
This is scary, not just because it illegally abridges rights, but because it’s downright stupid and could be costly. Whatever your views on Project Jupiter, how these folks handled it broke or narrowly skirted law. One commissioner was appalled by an agenda packet full of blank or unfinished pages, and having just two days to read pretty extensive material.
This ain’t like banning your drunken uncle from your backyard. A normal citizen shouldn’t have to pay attorneys to enforce rights. If you have just cause, prove it. Further enforcing this novel idea they can ban annoying people from public input without due process, could cost the county dearly.
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[The above column appeared Sunday, 8 February 2026, in the Las Cruces Sun-News and on the newspaper's website on the newspaper’s website and on KRWG’s website (under Local Viewpoints). A shortened and sharpened radio commentary version of this Sunday column will air during the week on KRWG (90.1 FM) and on KTAL-LP (101.5 FM / http://www.lccommunityradio.org/). ]
[I guess we’ll see what happens in the courts. As with ICE, if misconduct is allowed to go unchallenged, it will continue. Is this misconduct? I sure think so. Even if I’m wrong in my understanding of the law, and a county can toss someone out without cue process, it’s unjust and unwise. Means if the county doesn’t like how I say what I say about officials, they can send me a letter telling me not to come back. My choices are to disobey them, get cited by law enforcement, and pay lawyers to defend my criminal case, or to pay lawyers to file a declaratory relief action asking the court to declare the county’s action legal. Neither is something we should want. Neither is something county officials should want: unjust conduct and a possibility of paying a bunch of unnecessary money. ]
[And it’s all unnecessary. If these “officials” had reasonable grounds, which is certainly possible, all they had to do was arrange for someone unbiased to be the hearing officer and invite the alleged trespasser to seek a hearing on the legality of the trespass order. Simple. Just seems plain stupid – or worse – not to do so. Were these officials bending the law to satisfy Project Jupiter proponents? I know the trespassed person was a critic of the county’s approval of Jupiter; and I’m guessing maybe he videotaped Project Jupiter proponents in the parking lot, though that’s merely a guess.]
[ So far, a majority of the Commission steadfastly declines to consider that staff could be wrong here.]
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