The judiciary is so powerful — and in some ways, so cloaked in secrecy — it warrants all the transparency and accountability it can muster. It must not ever appear to be above the very laws it is charged with interpreting and enforcing.

Yet, in the light of a controversy that has rocked Colorado’s highest court — and that has been covered doggedly by The Gazette — it is clear our state’s court system has fallen far short of that mark.

What the reporting has revealed is a disturbing saga involving the courts. It amounts to a fundamental breakdown in accountability by the Colorado Judicial Department and the Colorado Supreme Court, which presides over the department.

Early last year, the public learned the court’s then-chief justice allegedly approved a multimillion-dollar contract for a high-level employee who faced firing and had threatened a tell-all sex-discrimination lawsuit. The suit promised to reveal years of alleged judicial misconduct that went unpunished or was covered up.

Instead of being forthcoming and helping investigate the allegations, the Judicial Department has stonewalled.

The public — which looks to the courts to interpret and uphold the rule of law and to mete out justice — has been left to wonder whether the contract, later canceled, was awarded as hush money. Much of the state’s political establishment and leadership have been wondering, as well — about that allegation and others that have turned up since.

Even the Colorado Commission on Judicial Discipline, which is supposed to get to the bottom of such allegations, has been shut out by the Supreme Court itself. The commission released a report last month accusing the Judicial Department of refusing to comply with a subpoena the commission had issued five months earlier in its inquiry into the alleged judicial misconduct. The Supreme Court also refused to issue the funding the commission needed to pay the investigators it hired.

The allegations in fact spurred multiple investigations and audits, as detailed in Gazette coverage — and all the inquiries have run into one hurdle or another.

This week, a special legislative committee looking into the discipline of judges and the need for reform heard testimony from some of those who have been trying to get answers. As reported by The Gazette, reform advocates testified that Colorado’s current method of investigating and disciplining judges should be scrapped for a more independent and transparent process.

“The walls between the (commission) and public should come down,” Chris Forsyth, executive of The Judicial Integrity Project told the lawmakers. “Reduce the appearance that courts are for the wealthy and the elite. This is the path toward judicial integrity.”

Forsyth suggested that a commission appointed by various government officials and the governor should replace the current, 10-member discipline commission appointed by the chief justice and governor.

Perhaps such a reconfigured commission could be vested with the authority and independence needed to take even the highest court to task if needed.

And the public should then have access to what the commission learns, as well. As noted in this week’s Gazette report, Colorado is one of 15 states where the work of its judicial discipline commission is secret until discipline is rendered. The process is public in the other 35 states once the investigation of a complaint is finished and charges are instituted.

Whatever form the reform takes, it can’t come too soon even if it does mean going to the voters to make the necessary constitutional changes to the process. We cannot afford to lose any more confidence in those who wield the gavel in our system of justice.

Denver Gazette editorial board