Welcome to Court Crawl, Colorado Politics’ roundup of news from the third branch of government. The White House heard from Colorado’s senators about who should fill an upcoming judicial vacancy on the federal trial court, and an examination of audio and video streaming in Colorado’s courts found  some have provided more access during the pandemic than others.

Biden’s judge pipeline

•  The Biden administration’s first judicial nominee for Colorado is seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. Last week, the U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary approved the nomination of Regina M. Rodriguez by a vote of 17-5. All no votes came from Republicans (and none of them explained their reasons for voting no.) She will now receive a vote before the full Senate, and it looks like she’ll take her seat on the bench in downtown Denver by July.

•   But then the process starts all over again! On Friday, U.S. Sens. Michael Bennet and John Hickenlooper sent their preferred candidates to the White House to fill another upcoming vacancy on the U.S. District Court. This seat doesn’t open until September 30, but given congressional recesses and general political tumult, it’s good to turn in the assignment early. The senators have recommended Nina Y. Wang, a current federal magistrate judge; corporate lawyer Kenzo Kawanabe; and civil rights attorney Charlotte N. Sweeney.

•  As a reminder: Colorado’s federal trial court is authorized for seven judges. One seat has been vacant since March 2019, creating a “judicial emergency,” meaning the number of case filings per judge exceeds national thresholds.

The future of streaming in courtrooms

• Colorado Politics took an inventory of the levels of audiovisual access courtrooms provided during the pandemic. State courts fared relatively well, with video streaming and archiving of oral arguments at the appellate courts, and live streaming of many trial court proceedings. One Supreme Court justice acknowledged that some virtual hearings will continue post-pandemic.

•  At the federal level, however, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit could not commit to retaining its live audio stream over YouTube, which it launched amid COVID-19. Likewise, the district court may not keep its public call-in line for people to listen to court proceedings.

•  Why has Colorado’s district court not volunteered for any of the video or audio pilot projects that other federal courts have participated in, even though it has the equipment to do so? Quite simply, the judges here chose not to. “It’s not a technology issue, it’s a policy issue,” court clerk Jeffrey P. Colwell said.

Contempt of court

•The Gazette explored the case of an Arapahoe County mother who has spent nine months in jail after a judge deemed her to have inappropriately disclosed details about her divorce proceedings to parties other than her attorneys. Lawyers for the woman claim the judge’s order violates the First Amendment right to free speech and the Eight Amendment’s prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment.

Vacancies and appointments

•  The citizen-led nominating commission has sent three names to the governor for an upcoming vacancy on the Court of Appeals. The finalists to succeed retiring Judge Diana Terry are W. Eric Kuhn, Priscilla Loew and Katharine Lum.

•  The governor is also weighing a district court appointment in the 18th Judicial District, which includes Arapahoe, Douglas, Elbert and Lincoln counties. Marques Ivey, Cajardo Lindsey and Cheryl Ann Rowles-Stokes are in the running to replace Judge Natalie T. Chase.

Miscellaneous decisions

•  Douglas County Sheriff’s deputies did not have probable cause to search a man’s car for illegal narcotics based on spying a single, unlabeled pill bottle, the Court of Appeals ruled.

•  The Court of Appeals reversed a woman’s convictions last year for theft of public benefits after it found she was not in a common law marriage and therefore did not have to report her alleged spouse’s income. But after the Colorado Supreme Court clarified the criteria for common law marriages this January, it asked the appellate court to take another look at its findings. The outcome was unchanged.

•  A medical air transport company based in Greenwood Village did not enter into a contract with the patients it airlifted, a federal judge found. The company tried to bill tens of thousands of dollars to patients, some of whom were unconscious and could not consent to their transport. “[A] person’s unwillingness to put a price on their own life does not translate to their agreeing to pay whatever amount defendants charge,” the judge said.

•  An Arapahoe County judge was wrong to retroactively decide he had declared a mistrial, the Colorado Supreme Court said. Because there is an established deadline for bringing someone to trial — and a mistrial declaration would have extended that window — the wrongful declaration resulted in the Supreme Court dismissing the case.

Wait, what?

Court Crawl will let this story speak for itself: “Aurora police stopped a man for a traffic infraction, deployed a drug-sniffing dog, found no narcotics but impounded the vehicle anyway, searched the vehicle before the warrant was approved, did not document the search, could not recall where a memory card went prior to booking it into evidence and used a mistaken representation in their application for a search warrant. A federal judge ruled, however, that the officers acted constitutionally.”