Republican Party of N.M. v. New Mexico Taxation & Revenue Dep't

2010 NMCA 80, 2010 NMCA 080, 242 P.3d 444, 148 N.M. 877
CourtNew Mexico Court of Appeals
DecidedJune 25, 2010
Docket28,292; 32,524
StatusPublished
Cited by12 cases

This text of 2010 NMCA 80 (Republican Party of N.M. v. New Mexico Taxation & Revenue Dep't) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering New Mexico Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Republican Party of N.M. v. New Mexico Taxation & Revenue Dep't, 2010 NMCA 80, 2010 NMCA 080, 242 P.3d 444, 148 N.M. 877 (N.M. Ct. App. 2010).

Opinion

OPINION

CASTILLO, Judge.

{1} Plaintiffs, the Republican Party of New Mexico and Lyn Ott, individually and as director of the Help America Vote Act, appeal from a two-part order granting summary judgment in favor of Defendants, the New Mexico Taxation and Revenue Department (T & RD), the Motor Vehicle Division (MVD) of the T & RD, and Luis Carrasco as custodian of public records for the T & RD (together referred to as “the State”). Plaintiffs requested information from the State pursuant to the Inspection of Public Records Act (IPRA), NMSA 1978, Sections 14-2-1 to -12 (1947, as amended through 2009). The State did provide records in response to the IPRA request, but relying on exceptions to IPRA and privilege, the State redacted much of the information in the documents provided. Plaintiffs filed suit challenging these redactions. The parties filed cross motions for summary judgment. The district court concluded that the redactions were appropriate and granted summary judgment in favor of the State. Plaintiffs now appeal.

{2} The public policy of New Mexico entitles “all persons ... to the greatest possible information regarding the affairs of government and the official acts of public officers and employees.” Section 14-2-5. Transparency in government is paramount. However, not all information is subject to public inspection, and there are exceptions to the general proposition. See, e.g., § 14-2-1(A) (listing twelve exceptions to the public’s right to inspect public records); City of Farmington v. The Daily Times, 2009-NMCA-057, ¶ 8, 146 N.M. 349, 210 P.3d 246 (describing the non-statutory exception to disclosure referred to as the “rule of reason”). In the case before us, the State asserted three exceptions: non-disclosure as required by the federal and state statutes limiting disclosure of motor vehicle records, executive privilege, and attorney-client privilege. After carefully reviewing the record and the arguments of the parties, we affirm the district court.

I. BACKGROUND

{3} This case arose as a result of an article by the Associated Press (AP) wherein it was reported that New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson had proposed new regulations that required undocumented aliens to provide additional forms of identification to procure New Mexico drivers’ licenses. According to the article, T & RD estimated that nearly 27,000 undocumented aliens had acquired drivers’ licenses under the then existing regulations which required undocumented aliens to present only one form of identification— either a passport, federal individual tax identification number, or consular identification card. The article also explained that the Richardson administration had become concerned that some of those licenses might have been issued to individuals who submitted documents of questionable authenticity and, as a result, the administration directed the MVD to perform an audit to evaluate that concern. On July 25, 2006, only a few months after publication of the AP article, Plaintiffs, wanting to “research whether undocumented aliens were voting in federal, state, and local elections in New Mexico,” requested the following categories of information from the State pursuant to IPRA:

1. All lists, compilations, and summaries thereof of drivers’ licenses that have been issued to individuals who are not citizens or legal residents of the United States pursuant to [NMSA 1978,] § 18-19-5.12(B) [sic] [Request # 1]; and
2. All memoranda, notes, reports, electronic mail messages, or other documents that identify or describe the number of drivers’ licenses that have been issued to individuals who are not citizens or legal residents of the United States pursuant to [NMSA 1978,] § 18 — 19— 5.12(B) [sic][.] [Request # 2]

As an alternative to number [two] ... you may produce the following:

All documents used as the basis for the [T & RD’s] statement [in the AP article] that ... “27,000 immigrants have obtained licenses” ... [Alternative to Request # 2]; and
3. All documents discussing, relating to, or created in response to instructions from the governor to audit records as described in the AP article[.] [Request #3]

{4} The State provided Plaintiffs with 150 pages of records which consisted of e-mails between the Governor’s office and the T & RD, e-mails between the T & RD and the MVD, and spreadsheets produced by the MVD. However, a great portion of the information within those documents was redacted. MVD explained to Plaintiffs that the redactions were legally necessary and cited the following grounds for this claim: (1) Section 14-2-l(A)(12), an exception to the right to request public documents under IPRA; (2) the New Mexico Driver Privacy Protection Act (NMDPPA), NMSA 1978, Section 66-2-7.1 (2007); (3) Rule 11-503 NMRA, attorney-client privilege; and (4) executive privilege.

{5} Unsatisfied with the State’s response, Plaintiffs filed suit. Plaintiffs sought an order compelling the State to produce copies of the documents without the redactions together with any other documents pertinent to their request. Cross-motions for summary judgment followed. The district court entered a partial ruling on the parties’ cross-motions concluding that the federal Drivers Privacy Protection Act (DPPA) 18 U.S.C. §§ 2721 to -25 (1994, as amended through 2000), and the NMDPPA require the State to maintain the confidentiality of drivers’ personal information and, thus, the State appropriately redacted personal information from the spreadsheets provided to Plaintiffs. Accordingly, the district court granted summary judgment in the State’s favor with respect to this aspect of Plaintiffs’ claim. As to the remaining redactions — those made pursuant to executive and attorney-client privileges — the district court reserved decision pending an in camera review of the communications without redactions.

{6} After the in camera review, the district court granted summary judgment to the State with respect to the remainder of Plaintiffs’ claims. Plaintiffs filed a motion for reconsideration which was subsequently denied. This appeal followed.

II. DISCUSSION

{7} On appeal, Plaintiffs take issue with the district court’s conclusions that (1) the State properly redacted personal drivers’ information from the spreadsheets, (2) the redactions carried out pursuant to executive privilege were proper, and (3) the redactions carried out pursuant to attorney-client privilege were proper. We begin with the applicable standard of review and then address Plaintiffs’ arguments in turn.

A. Standard of Review

{8} The issues on appeal require us to interpret provisions of the DPPA and NMDPPA. For issues of statutory construction, our standard of review is de novo. Bell v. Estate of Bell, 2008-NMCA-045, ¶ 11, 143 N.M. 716, 181 P.3d 708, cert. quashed, 2008-NMCERT-011, 145 N.M. 532, 202 P.3d 125. We are also required to review the district court’s decisions regarding the applicability and construction of the attorney-client and executive privileges.

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Bluebook (online)
2010 NMCA 80, 2010 NMCA 080, 242 P.3d 444, 148 N.M. 877, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/republican-party-of-nm-v-new-mexico-taxation-revenue-dept-nmctapp-2010.