The Knucklehead of the Day award

Today's winner is The New Mexico Gamefowl Breeders Association. They get the award for the following.

LOVINGTON, N.M.—A new state law against fighting roosters violates a treaty that ended the Mexican-American War, a cockfighting association claims in a lawsuit.

The New Mexico Gamefowl Breeders Association and six businessmen argued that the law infringes on rights protected under the 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, which made New Mexico a U.S. territory.

The lawsuit contends the treaty guarantees civil, political and religious rights, privileges and immunities to the people of New Mexico.

Many of the association's 2,000 members "are devoted to rural lifestyles, of which gamefowl breeding and-or participating in gamefowl shows and fights are, in New Mexico, long-standing, culturally bound and significant activities," the lawsuit said.

In 2003, the attorney general's office wrote in an advisory letter to a state lawmaker that the treaty didn't mention cockfighting and it wasn't a protected right.

The 19-page lawsuit filed Thursday asks the court to void the cockfighting ban and issue an injunction against its enforcement. The ban took effect June 15.

"There's a lot of people upset," said Ronald Barron, president of the New Mexico Game Fowl Breeders Association. "It's affecting their businesses, their livelihood."

New Mexico Attorney General Gary King said Friday that state lawmakers acted properly in approving the ban, and that it doesn't violate any provision of the 1848 treaty.

"We don't think that any of the arguments in this hold water," King said.

I agree with King. You can read the treaty in question here. Ron Coleman at Overlawyered writes-

Okay, so what's the legal theory again? Oh, yeah, that's right: This novel civil right -- the right to engage in any "long-standing, culturally bound and significant activities" -- is enshrined in the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. Well, here's the Treaty: You see the clause guaranteeing the inalienable right to "long-standing, culturally bound and significant activities"?

No? Okay, well how about just the piece about roosters?

No mention of roosters. Just another dumb lawsuit over imagined civil rights. That makes The New Mexico Gamefowl Breeders Association today's Knucklehead of the Day.

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