Colorado Politics

Hickenlooper to name new Colorado Supreme Court justice Thursday

Gov. John Hickenlooper will announce his choice for the next justice on the Colorado Supreme Court Thursday at 2:30 p.m.

The new justice will replace Justice Allison Eid, who was named by President Donald Trump to the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals.

Eid, whose husband, Troy, is a former U.S. attorney, was confirmed by the U.S. Senate for the post on Nov. 2. She replaced Justice Neil Gorsuch, whom Trump named to the U.S. Supreme Court last January.

Last month the state Supreme Court Nominating Commission advanced the names of three finalists, all women, to Hickenlooper. They are 12th Judicial District Chief Judge Pattie P. Swift of Alamosa, Holland & Hart partner Marcy G. Glenn of Denver and law professor Melissa Hart of Boulder, who is director of the University of Colorado Byron R. White Center for Constitutional Law.

Glenn’s law practice has focused on constitutional law, natural resources law, employment law, commercial litigation, environmental law and intellectual property. She has argued in front of the U.S. Supreme Court and recently represented State Sen. Vicki Marble of Fort Collins on an ethics complaint that is pending before the state’s independent ethics commission. Prior to joining Holland & Hart in 1983, Glenn clerked for U.S. District Court Judge Richard P. Matsch. She holds an undergraduate degree from Dartmouth College and a law degree from Northeastern University law school.

Hart holds an undergraduate degree from Radcliffe and a law degree from Harvard. She comes by her interest in the law through her family; her grandfather was former U.S. Solicitor General and Watergate special counsel Archibald Cox. She has been on the faculty at CU since 2000, with a focus on employment discrimination, access to justice and constitutional law. Hart clerked for Judge Guido Calabresi of the Second Circuit, and for Justice John Paul Stevens on the United States Supreme Court, and worked as a trial attorney for the U.S. Department of Justice.

Hart, a former candidate for CU regent, was named a finalist for the state Supreme Court in 2015. Hickenlooper instead picked Justice Richard Gabriel.

Judge Swift is a graduate of St. John’s College of Santa Fe and the University of New Mexico law school. She served as County Court Judge for Costilla County from January 1989 until she assumed her current position as a District Court Judge in February 2003.  She was named chief judge of the 12th Judicial District in 2011. She also has a background in the state’s water court, serving as Acting Water Referee for Water Division 3 from January 2010 through July 2011.

The Colorado Water Congress has advocated for a water expert for the state’s highest court, noting an absence of extensive water law background on the Court since the retirement of Justice Greg Hobbs in 2015 (Hobbs was replaced by Justice Gabriel).

Hickenlooper’s decision Thursday will be his fourth for the state’s highest court.

___

Colorado Politics Ernest Luning contributed to this article.


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