Highlighting Excellence: Crestencia Pihlaja of UNM School of Law Earns Second Place in National Moot Court Competition
University of New Mexico School of Law (“UNMSOL”) student Crestencia Pihlaja was awarded second place for best oral argument at the Hispanic National Bar Association’s 29th Annual Uvaldo Herrera National Moot Court Competition. This year’s Uvaldo Herrera National Moot Court Competition was held in Seattle, Washington in March. The New Mexico Hispanic Bar Association proudly sponsored UNMSOL team members Crestencia Pihlaja and Damon Nieto to help them attend the Competition. The Uvaldo Herrera National Moot Court Competition selects up to 32 teams of law students from across the country to argue a case currently before the U.S. Supreme Court. Special thanks to coach Kateri West of Modrall Sperling for coaching the UNMSOL Team.
NMHBA Statement on Pride Month 2023
As New Mexico, and the nation at large, celebrate LGBTQIA+ Pride this June, the New Mexico Hispanic Bar Association (NMHBA) stands in solidarity with our LGBTQIA+ members and community. This year has marked an unprecedented number of attacks on this community, including over 400 introduced/passed anti-LGBTQIA+ bills in state legislatures across the country. The NMHBA condemns such discrimination, and celebrates the diversity of our membership.
NMHBA Statement on the end of Title 42
NMHBA Statement on the end of Title 42
As of May 11, 2023, the Biden Administration has ended Title 42. The immigration related policy was enacted in 2020 by the Trump administration in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The policy allowed Customs and Border Patrol officers to expeditiously remove migrants and deny them the right to have their asylum claim adjudicated in the United States.
NMHBA Statement Regarding the Confirmation of Justice Amy Coney Barrett
Among the NMHBA’s chief goals are to promote diversity within the legal community, the advancement of Hispanics/Latinx/Chicanas/os within the profession, and to ensure equal treatment under the law for all. The role of the United States Supreme Court in achieving these goals cannot be understated. The NMHBA is concerned with Justice Barrett’s ability to fully and fairly consider the impact of her and the Court’s decisions on issues of importance to New Mexico's Hispanic community. The Hispanic National Bar Association’s intensive due diligence review reveals no record of interest or engagement with the Hispanic community, including with students and legal professionals, on the part of Justice Barrett. Moreover, her record on issues of civil rights and equality under the law raises concerns of the disparate impact her decisions could have on the Hispanic community at large and New Mexico’s Hispanic community in particular.
The New Mexico Hispanic Bar Association's Statement on the Passing of Supreme Court Justice Ruth
The New Mexico Hispanic Bar Association joins the nation in mourning the passing of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. As an attorney, Justice Ginsburg was a zealous defender of women’s rights and all civil liberties. Upon her appointment to the United States Supreme Court, she not only broke barriers by becoming only the second woman to ascend to the highest court in the nation’s judiciary, she also became a fierce champion of the constitution, civil rights, and equal protection under the law. In nearly three decades on the Supreme Court, she authored more than 400 opinions and even more memorable concurrences and dissents which revealed not only a brilliant mind for interpretation of the nation’s laws, but also empathy and awareness for how the application of law affects the most vulnerable. As a result, Hispanic, Latinx/o/a, and Chicanx/o/a communities benefited greatly from Justice Ginsburg’s life of work.
NMHBA Statement on 'Zero Tolerance' Family Separation Policy
Parental rights “in the care, custody, and control of their children” are “perhaps the oldest of the fundamental liberty interests recognized by this Court.” - Troxel v. Granville, 530 U.S. 57, 66 (2000).
We, the Board Members of the New Mexico Hispanic Bar Association (NMHBA), an organization comprised of more than three hundred attorneys and students throughout New Mexico, stand in solidarity with immigrant families and against President Trump’s policies that separate families and any policies that indefinitely place families in detention. We support and stand by the statements released by the Hispanic National Bar Association and the American Bar Association. Though we may hold different views on national immigration policy, we can agree that it is inhumane to separate children from their parents at the border.