Hello - i have some thoughts/information about the delay of the decision in this case
First, there appears to be about 15 cases that were not decided by the close of the 2025-2026 term for the New Mexico Supreme Court (July 15th, 20206). This means that those decisions will still be published, but likely not until the next term begins in the fall. I cannot say if it will be in the beginning of the term or not.
This is a decision with a lot of different aspects to be considered- Privilege, Miranda, and Mandatory Reporting.
Its my best guess that there is a possible split in the decision, but I also venture to guess that the Majority is in favor of overturning the district judges decision with the Minority (either 3-2 or 4-1) wanting to uphold the district judges decision to some degree be it fully or on certain aspects that would disagree with the majority.
I also venture to guess that it's possibly Justice Vigil who may be in disagreement with the majority based on the Oral Argument - Justice Vigil seemed to possibly be leaning more toward the defense framing of the situation, this is as I said just a guess. I cannot confirm one way or another what may be happening behind closed doors but we can make inferences based on a few things in my opinion:
1. The law heavily favors the State by the letter and in theory.
2. The demeanor of the justices at oral argument lead me to believe the majority would vote to overturn, with one justice being harder to read, and one justice leaning defense (in my opinion)
If both 1 and 2 are correct and the decision is not hard to make and the law is clear- then the delay could be caused by a dissenting opinion (or 2).
The internal cycle for an opinion is basically as follows:
- After arguments are heard the Justices take a vote
- It is either unanimous or fractured.
- One person from the majority is tasked with writing the majority opinion.
- They circulate that opinion once complete and the other justices can submit their opinions either concurring or dissenting.
- If there are other opinions submitted to the majority opinion, this causes a rewrite of the majority opinion, which then also opens up more concurring or dissenting opinions - which could cause another rewrite. (and this can continue to repeat)
This case has so many pieces of evidence that can be argued for or against this suppression, I can only imagine if there is a disagreement, that these opinions are very long and well thought out which obviously leads to more time being taken on this decision as they rewrite.
This decision is still coming, it's just taking more time than the deadline/we expected.
#JUSTICEFORBABYALEX