SANTA FE, NM -- On Wednesday, August 24, 2011, MALDEF and co-counsel Freedman Boyd Hollander Goldberg Ives & Duncan (Freedman Boyd) will announce the filing of a lawsuit against the Secretary of the New Mexico Taxation and Revenue Department, on behalf of a group of New Mexico legislators and residents of New Mexico.  The lawsuit will seek to stop the implementation and execution of the so-called “Residency Certification Program.”  The Program, which singles out a specific class of individuals for an onerous and wasteful exercise of state resources, was never authorized, ratified, or even considered by the State Legislature, and lacks statutory authority.

This lawsuitformally a petition for mandamus, which may be issued by the state district court to order a public official or agency to refrain from taking unlawful or unconstitutional actionsseeks to stop New Mexico Governor Martinez’s “Residency Certification Program” from unlawfully violating the rights of New Mexico residents and from doing an end-run around the will of the New Mexico legislature.