Thomas Newsome, a retired journalist and University of New Mexico alum, is suing the University alleging that they’ve failed to meet their obligation to document their activities involving public business resulting in the denial or obstruction of Newsome’s right to access these records. The lawsuit, which was filed on Feb. 26, claims UNM violated the Inspection of Public Records Act.
The lawsuit alleges a pattern of poor records management on the part of UNM in denying the public access to records they have a legal right to see. Examples of poor management outlined include failure to locate documents, identify which records exist and if requested records exist at all.
UNM declined to comment, claiming they had not yet been served with the appropriate documents.
The UNM Board of Regents, Chief Records Officer Marcos Roybal and Custodian of Public Records Robert Tafoya are named as defendants in the lawsuit.
The Inspection of Public Records Act is a New Mexico state law that provides the public access to public records and requires open access to almost all public records in state and local government, according to the
New Mexico Secretary of State’s Office.
Newsome is seeking from the courts a “corrective action plan” that UNM must comply with in order to prevent obstruction of IPRA, in which reports are made on a regular basis, he said. As a partially state-funded institution, UNM is required to comply with IPRA requests made by the public.
Newsome said poor records management is an indirect way of hindering the public’s right to examine the records of what government agencies are doing.
“One of the most notorious excuses that agencies use, and UNM is one of them, is that a record that has been requested does not exist,” Newsome said. “And, while under the Inspection of Public Records Act they do not have to create one, they do have to create it under the Records Management Act.”
Newsome has been involved in litigation surrounding public records for decades, having been plaintiff in lawsuits appearing before the 10th Circuit of Appeals and the Supreme Court of New Mexico, including another public records lawsuit against UNM in 1977 that climbed to the latter court. The former case ended in a dismissal in favor of the defense, and the latter was remanded to a lower court.
“I’ve been doing it for a long time, it’s nothing that I just woke up yesterday morning and thought about, ‘well, why don’t I ask for public records from the University of New Mexico?’” Newsome said. “You have to hold government agencies accountable, you have to make them disclose what they are doing.”
A separate lawsuit was filed by the New Mexico Foundation for Open Government against the UNM Board of Regents in September 2025 similarly claiming the University failed to comply with IPRA. The lawsuit alleges UNM refused to make its contracts with the student-athletes public.
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Newsome said anyone interested in access to public records should understand the connection between “records management and the disclosure of public records.”
“The first thing that has to be done before disclosure can occur is the creation of a record. It is impossible to ask for a record that doesn’t already exist,” Newsome said.
Penelope Loyd Sment is a freelance reporter for the Daily Lobo. She can be reached at news@dailylobo.com or on X @DailyLobo
