Judge in New Mexico Gun Case Defied Convention En Route to Bench

David Herrera Urias, the New Mexico federal district judge who blocked a new state regulation limiting the public’s right to openly carry guns, took an unconventional path to the bench.

Urias grew up in Albuquerque where his father managed a tire store and quit high school in his senior year, opting to later earn a GED certificate, the Albuquerque Journal reported in 2022.

He bounced from job to job, including busing tables at a Mexican restaurant in his hometown, before enrolling at the University of New Mexico in his mid-20s. He went on to attend law school there, as well.

“I always tell young people to never give up on their education,” Urias told the Alburquerque Journal. “Kids end up in places where they fall so far behind, they think they can’t make it up. But even if things don’t work out as you plan them, you can get to where you want to be.”

Urias wound up as one of seven judges on the US District Court for the District of New Mexico after President Joe Biden nominated him in September 2021. He was confirmed three months later, 45-26.

The highest profile action of Urias’ tenure came Wednesday when he ruled against an executive order issued by Gov. Michelle Grisham (D), who declared a state of public emergency due to gun violence. The state restricted open and concealed possession in parts of the state with high violent crime and firearm-related emergency room visits.

Urias said the state had failed to show those concerns “overcome the public’s interest in preventing constitutional violations” and issued a temporary order blocking enforcement of the ban.

Erlinda Johnson, an Albuquerque lawyer who supported Urias’ nomination to the bench, said in an email that he made the right call.

“The governor’s order was unconstitutional,” Johnson, a former federal prosecutor in the state, said. “Judge Urias is a brilliant jurist who carefully considers legal issues before him without consideration of politics or sides. His fidelity is to the law and the constitution.”

Earlier in his career, Urias clerked for the District of Columbia Court of Appeals and worked as an associate and a civil rights fellow at Fried Frank in New York. He joined the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund as a staff attorney in San Antonio, where he worked from 2004 to 2008.

He then returned to Albuquerque where he joined a firm as an associate and partner, which ultimately added his name to its moniker. His typical clients were individual plaintiffs in civil cases “often people of modest or limited financial means,” Urias said in his Senate Judiciary questionnaire.

His most significant cases included representing a young girl separated from her father at the border in 2017, Urias said.

In an endorsement letter supporting Urias’ nomination, the New Mexico Hispanic Bar Association noted he was “one of few Hispanic candidates for Article III appointments” and that he had “steadfastly supported the Hispanic community in New Mexico” through his legal practice arguing against discrimination.

Urias’ chamber didn’t respond to a request for comment.