Over 260 high school students attended the Supreme Court hearing for Johnson v. Board of Education as part of the Rules of Law program on Monday April 29, 2024. (Photo by Jeanette DeDios / KUNM)
In a unanimous opinion issued Thursday, the New Mexico Supreme Court ruled the New Mexico Human Rights Act includes public schools and universities as places of public accommodation.
The decision means a lawsuit by Native American student McKenzie Johnson, whom an Albuquerque high school teacher allegedly called a “bloody Indian” in 2018, can proceed. Johnson, 16 years old at the time, had worn a costume for Halloween and had fake blood on her cheek.
According to a news release from the Administrative Office of the Courts, the justices’ decision broadens the HRA’s coverage to include public universities and, in so doing, overturns a decades-old precedential decision.
The court heard oral arguments in the case in April in Albuquerque as part of the Court’s Rule of Law Program. Johnson’s alleged interaction occurred after the teacher allegedly cut off part of the braided hair of another Native American student. Johnson sued Albuquerque Public Schools and the teacher, but the case was dismissed by a district court. The Supreme Court’s decision upholds the Appeals Court decision to reverse the district court.
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“The holding of this opinion is firmly grounded in the plain language of the NMHRA,” the Court wrote in an opinion by Chief Justice David K. Thomson. “However, the statute’s history and background demonstrate that the Legislature intended for public schools to be public accommodations and therefore in some ways accountable under the NMHRA.”