Vallejos v Commissioner of Registration
The hearing on Vallejos' case began on 22 August 2011, and stretched out until the 24th. David Pannick represented the respondent, the Commissioner of Registration. During the hearing, the courtroom was packed to overflowing with lawyers, journalists, and other members of the public, who took up not just the seats in the public gallery, but also those for defendants and jury members (the latter being unoccupied as the case at hand was not a jury trial but a judicial review). Another hundred people watched the proceedings on a large-screen television in the lobby, while protestors both supporting and opposing Vallejos' case faced off outside the building without incident.
Same-sex marriage in New Mexico
On March 21, 2013, in "Griego v. Oliver", Rose Griego, her partner, along with another lesbian couple, as represented by the American Civil Liberties Union and others, filed a lawsuit in State District Court in Albuquerque challenging the Bernalillo County clerk's refusal to issue them marriage licenses. On June 6, the plaintiffs filed an amended complaint where they were joined by three more same-sex couples seeking relief. On August 16, the plaintiffs filed a second amended complaint, adding one more couple seeking relief, while also claiming that New Mexico's refusal to recognize their marriages "deprives [the plaintiffs] of hundreds of protections, benefits, and obligations of marriage that the federal government now provides to married same-sex couples in light of the United States Supreme Court's decision in "United States v. Windsor"."