A New Mexico district judge on Tuesday advanced a legal challenge to the state’s new universal childcare program by issuing an order that allows state officials to either respond to the suit in court or pause the program.

Republican gubernatorial candidate Duke Rodriguez, who co-filed the suit, hailed the judge’s order as a win, while Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham’s administration characterized it as a routine order “that allows the state to respond before the court takes any action.”

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Lujan Grisham announced the state’s universal childcare initiative in September and said it would save families about $12,000 per child annually. Earlier this year, she signed Senate Bill 241, which created funding mechanisms for the program and established criteria for enacting co-pays during economic downturns, into law.

Rodriguez previously told Source NM he believed Lujan Grisham had run afoul of an old New Mexico Supreme Court decision in which Rodriguez — who led the state Human Services Department under Governor Gary Johnson — was accused of implementing a state program “without seeking legislative approval.”

Tuesday’s order from Second Judicial District Judge Elaine Lujan, Rodriguez said in a statement, “represents a victory for the New Mexico Constitution, for government transparency and for the people of New Mexico.”

Early Childhood Education and Care Department Secretary Elizabeth Groginsky in a statement, however, pushed back on Rodriguez’s characterization of Tuesday’s filing.

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“The department is actively working on a response and is confident the court will agree this case is without merit,” she wrote. “Universal childcare is here to stay, as shown by the passage of Senate Bill 241. Families should rest assured that ECECD remains fully committed to protecting access to the services they need and rely on. The department will not waver in its mission to make quality childcare accessible to families across New Mexico.”

Lujan Grisham’s Communications Director Michael Coleman in a statement to Source NM said the court on Tuesday rejected Rodriguez’s request to pause universal childcare without giving the governor or the ECECD a chance to respond.

The filing “is a routine response that allows the state to respond before the court takes any action. Universal childcare remains in effect and New Mexico families have no reason for concern,” Coleman said. “The New Mexico Legislature settled the legal question when it passed Senate Bill 241. The governor is confident the courts will agree and toss out this ‘controversy’ manufactured by a Republican political candidate.”

Rodriguez, however, maintains that SB241’s passage does not address his concerns because it was passed after the program’s implementation and because it didn’t carry an emergency clause, meaning it doesn’t go into effect until May 20.

“With the court’s order in hand, the governor can now do the right thing and start over, or she can continue to create chaos for families,” Rodriguez said in a statement.