Opinion ID: 1208241
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Majority Unnecessary Reexamines Local School Boards' Arm of the State Status.

Text: In the second prong of its § 1983 analysis (Part I.D.2) the majority reexamines whether New Mexico's local school boards are in fact arms of the state as defined by Mt. Healthy. This question, however, has already been addressed by the Tenth Circuit in Martinez v. Board of Education, 748 F.2d 1393, 1396 (10th Cir.1984), and answered in the affirmative. See also Garcia v. Board of Educ., 777 F.2d 1403, 1407 (10th Cir.1985) (following Martinez ). The majority opinion criticizes Martinez for misapplying the Mt. Healthy factors and conducts its own analysis of the federal statute, reaching the opposite conclusion. Once again, this question about the status of local school boards under the Eleventh Amendment need not have been addressed by this Court in reaching its conclusion. However, in conducting its own analysis, the majority unnecessarily places us in conflict with the Tenth Circuit and raises the possibility that a federal claim could successfully be brought in state court which would otherwise fail in federal court. Furthermore, the recent opinion, Ambus v. Granite Board of Education, 995 F.2d 992, 994 (10th Cir.1993) (overruling prior opinion holding Utah school board was an arm of the state), indicates that the Tenth Circuit may be rethinking its previous analysis of the Mt. Healthy factors. Compare id. with Martinez, 748 F.2d at 1396 and Garcia, 777 F.2d at 1411 (McKay, J., dissenting). Accordingly, until the question of the proper application of § 1983, a federal statute, is squarely before us, we should allow the Tenth Circuit to resolve the issues addressed by the majority.