Sanchez v. Torrez

── Sanchez v. Torrez ── Court: Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit Date: April 21, 2026 Category: General Appellate Case: 25-2009 Document: 57-1 Date Filed: 04/21/2026 Page: 1 FILED United States Court of Appeals PUBLISH Tenth Circuit UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS April 21, 2026 Christopher M. Wolpert FOR THE TENTH CIRCUIT Clerk of Court _________________________________ LUCIA F. SANCHEZ; MICHAEL F. SANCHEZ, JR.; ERIK BRIONES; RICHARD JENKINS; ROLAND RIVERA, Plaintiffs - Appellants, v. No. 25-2009 RAÚL TORREZ, in his official capacity as Attorney General of New Mexico; RICHARD STUMP, in his official capacity as Chair of the New Mexico State Game Commission; SHARON SALAZAR HICKEY, in her official capacity as Vice- Chair of the New Mexico State Game Commission; TIRZIO LOPEZ, in his official capacity as a member of the New Mexico State Game Commission; GREGG FULFER, in his official capacity as a member of the New Mexico State Game Commission; DR. SABRINA PACK, in her official capacity as a member of the New Mexico State Game Commission; EDWARD GARCIA, in his official capacity as a member of the New Mexico State Game Commission; FERNANDO CLEMENTE, JR., in his official capacity as a member of the New Mexico State Game Commission; MICHAEL SLOANE, in his official capacity as Director of the New Mexico Department of Game & Fish, Defendants - Appellees. _________________________________  Appellate Case: 25-2009 Document: 57-1 Date Filed: 04/21/2026 Page: 2 Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of New Mexico (D.C. No. 1:24-CV-00646-KWR-LF) _________________________________ Christopher M. Kieser, Pacific Legal Foundation, Sacramento, California (Jeremy Talcott, Pacific Legal Foundation, Sacramento, California; and Mark L. Ish, Felker, Ish, Ritchie, Geer & Winter, P.A., Santa Fe, New Mexico, with him on the briefs), for Plaintiffs-Appellants. James W. Grayson, Chief Deputy Attorney General, New Mexico Department of Justice, Santa Fe, New Mexico (Raúl Torrez, New Mexico Attorney General; and Mark T. Baker, Matthew E. Jackson, and Abigail L. Pace, Peifer, Hanson, Mullins & Baker, P.A., Albuquerque, New Mexico, with him on the brief), for Defendants-Appellees. _________________________________ Before PHILLIPS, McHUGH, and FEDERICO, Circuit Judges. _________________________________ McHUGH, Circuit Judge. _________________________________ The Plaintiffs-Appellants in this appeal are five New Mexico landowners: Lucia F. Sanchez, Michael F. Sanchez Jr., Roland Rivera, Erik Briones, and Richard Jenkins (collectively, “the Landowners”). The Landowners each hold title to non-navigable streambeds of the Rio Tusas or Pecos River in New Mexico. The Landowners assert that they once held the right to exclude members of the public from walking or wading in their private streambeds but that the New Mexico Supreme Court changed established property law and eliminated this right to exclude. Accordingly, the Landowners claim the New Mexico Supreme Court’s decision amounted to a judicial taking of their right to exclude without just compensation in violation of the Fifth Amendment. The district court concluded the Landowners lacked standing and that their claims were barred by sovereign immunity. It therefore dismissed their Complaint under Federal 2  Appellate Case: 25-2009