Judge Kathleen McGarry Ellenwood

Manuel Arrieta

New Mexico First Judicial District Court, Division X

Background Kathleen McGarry Ellenwood is a district court judge in Division X (Civil Court) of the First Judicial District Court of New Mexico. The district covers Los Alamos, Rio Arriba, and Santa Fe counties. She is an Ohio native who has lived in Glorieta, New Mexico, since 2001.

Admission She was admitted to the New Mexico Bar in 2002.

Prior Experience Ellenwood practiced privately until 2018. That year she became a staff attorney for the First Judicial District Court, where she assisted judges with research, primarily in civil cases.

Appointment & Current Role A Democrat and alumna of Emerge New Mexico (class of 2020), she was appointed to the bench on July 2, 2020, by Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham to fill one of four new judicial positions created by the legislature.

Judge Kathleen McGarry Ellenwood has been involved in multiple decisions that have drawn public attention:

  • On November 25, 2025, she ruled in favor of the City of Santa Fe in a lawsuit challenging a 2023 city council resolution that directed the posting of signs designating certain city-owned buildings as gun-free zones under existing state law.
  • In October 2024, she ordered the New Mexico Secretary of State’s Office to update its voter registration system and notify county clerks so that approximately 11,000 individuals with felony convictions could register and vote, enforcing a 2023 change in the Elections Act.
  • In 2023, she ruled that the New Mexico Legislative Council Service violated the Inspection of Public Records Act by failing to provide spreadsheets detailing legislator-directed appropriations in the 2021 Junior Appropriations Act.
  • In 2024, she imposed the maximum $150,000 penalty on an inmate medical care provider for withholding public records for four years in violation of the Inspection of Public Records Act.

Election Status She was elected to a full term in 2022. Her current term ends on December 31, 2026.

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