James “James Freeman” Springer (Freeman) suffered a near fatal blow to his lawsuit against New Mexico’s Seventh District court on Friday as Judge Margaret Strickland dismissed the vast majority of his lawsuit.
Freeman was barred from entering the Torrance County District Courthouse in New Mexico unless he had specific business with the court and he was accompanied by a member of the Torrance County Sheriff’s Office while in the building.
After several protests and demonstrations, and endless attempts at brigading by supporters of Freeman, that order was eventually extended to all court facilities within New Mexico’s Seventh District.
A lawsuit was filed by Freeman against the Seventh District judges and a handful of clerks who refused to serve Freeman in the United States District Court for the District of New Mexico last year.
That case has lingered over a number of issues, including Freeman failing to properly serve the defendants and Freeman doing everything he could to avoid stating an actual claim against the defendants.
Freeman did file four counts in the case, without ever stating a specific claim against the defendents.
Count I was based on Freeman’s claims that his first amendment rights were violated by the Court when it barred him from attending hearings in his capacity as a reporter.
Count II was based on his claim that he was barred from attending those hearings in a retaliatory fashion based on his first amendment viewpoints.
Count III was based on a due process claim, essentially stating that the actions taken by the Judges in the case were based on decisions made without giving him a chance to defend himself.
Count IV was a mishmash of the previous charges.
In her decision, Strickland ordered that Counts I, II and III be dismissed with prejudice to the extent that they sought injunctive relief. They were dismissed without prejudice to the extent that the sought prospective declaratory relief regarding the constitutionality of the order against Freeman preventing him from going into court facilities without an escort.
Court IV was dismissed without prejudice due to lack of subject matter jurisdiction.
All the defendants except Chief Judge Mercedes Murphy were terminated from Freeman’s lawsuit.
Freeman now has 14 days to file a third amended complaint for prospective declaratory relief against Chief Judge Murphy in her official capacity. This allowance came with the warning that it would more than likely be Freeman’s last attempt to amend his complaint so care should be taken that he corrects the deficiencies from previous versions of the complaint.
As expected, Freeman has already notified the Court that he is appealing Judge Strickland’s decision to the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit.
We will continue to provide updates to the case as we receive them.
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