10th Circuit Says New Mexico Campaign Finance Rule Likely Violates Free Speech

A three-judge panel of the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals revived a former state senator’s challenge, finding that part of New Mexico’s campaign-fund donation ban likely infringes the First Amendment.

The 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned a summary-judgment ruling for New Mexico Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver, reviving former state Senator Jerry Ortiz y Pino’s lawsuit against the state’s Campaign Reporting Act. The panel, comprising Judges Joel Carson, Harris Hartz and Robert Edwin Bacharach, concluded that the statute’s prohibition on using campaign funds for donations to non-501(c)(3) organizations or individuals directly touches on expressive activity and therefore must withstand First Amendment review.

The court rejected the secretary’s interpretation that only personal, non-political expenditures fall within the ban, pointing out that even a $200 payment for a student’s workshop could signal a policy stance. By deeming the law facially unconstitutional, the judges sent the case back to the New Mexico district court to assess whether the senator’s specific donation was expressive. The decision underscores that the law cannot be rewritten by agency guidance alone and that any restriction on political speech must be narrowly tailored. Neither side provided comments at press time.