New Mexico First Judicial District Court, Division I
Background Francis Joseph Mathew is a district court judge in Division I (Civil Court) of the First Judicial District Court of New Mexico. The district covers Los Alamos, Rio Arriba, and Santa Fe counties.
Education He received a Bachelor of Business Administration in 1974 and a Juris Doctor in 1979, both from the University of Notre Dame.
Prior Experience Before taking the bench, Mathew was in private practice. He established the Mathew Law Firm in 2004 after working at Jones, Snead, Wertheim & Wentworth.
Appointment & Current Role A Democrat, he was appointed to the court on January 11, 2013, by Republican Governor Susana Martinez to fill the vacancy left by Barbara J. Vigil’s election to the New Mexico Supreme Court.
Mathew has been involved in multiple decisions that have drawn public attention:
- On December 13, 2023, he was arrested at a state police checkpoint in Santa Fe for driving while intoxicated after admitting to consuming a glass of wine and a cocktail. He performed poorly on field sobriety tests. Breath tests showed blood alcohol levels of 0.05% and 0.04%, below the 0.08% legal limit. A special prosecutor dropped the misdemeanor charge with prejudice in February 2025 due to insufficient evidence. The incident sparked controversy over judicial conduct, law enforcement practices, and the use of field tests.
- In the 2022 case New Mexico ex rel. White v. Griffin, Mathew disqualified and removed Otero County Commissioner Couy Griffin from office under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment. He found that Griffin had engaged in insurrection by participating in, mobilizing, and inciting the mob during the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. The decision barred Griffin for life from holding public office and marked the first such disqualification since 1869 and the first court finding that January 6 constituted an “insurrection.” The ruling was praised by groups such as Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington for upholding constitutional accountability but criticized by conservatives and Griffin supporters as judicial overreach.
- On January 26, 2024, Mathew issued a preliminary injunction halting enforcement of an Albuquerque City Council ordinance that removed city-appointed members from the Albuquerque Bernalillo County Air Quality Control Board and altered its operations. He found a likelihood of success on the merits for the challengers and potential harm from unlawful enforcement.
Election Status He was elected unopposed to a full term in 2014 and retained by voters in a 2020 nonpartisan retention election. His current term ends on December 31, 2026.
