Welcome to Court Crawl, Colorado Politics’ roundup of news from the third branch of government.

Colorado has two new federal judges following the confirmation of another Biden administration appointee, and the U.S. Supreme Court’s latest term is already having an impact on the judicial decisions issued in the state.

From Judge Wang to Judge Wang

•  Nina Y. Wang won’t have to travel far for her new job. Last week, the U.S. Senate confirmed her to be a U.S. District Court judge for Colorado on the same court where she has served as a magistrate judge since 2015. The vote was 58-36, with nine Republicans joining Democratic senators in supporting her confirmation.

•  The confirmation was a historic one. Never before has a magistrate judge been confirmed in Colorado to a lifetime appointment. The practice is common on other federal courts, where magistrate judges handle many of the same tasks as their Senate-confirmed counterparts, including handling entire cases by themselves. Wang has tried half a dozen cases herself in her seven years on the bench.

•  And in a bit of breaking news this Monday morning, the district court reports that Wang and U.S. District Court Judge Charlotte N. Sweeney were both sworn in on July 22 to their new positions. Sweeney’s first day will be Aug. 1, following her Senate confirmation in late May. They are the Biden administration’s third and fourth judicial nominees for Colorado, all of whom have been women to date. They join U.S. District Court Judge Regina M. Rodriguez and Judge Veronica S. Rossman of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit — both Biden appointees from 2021. 

•  For those keeping track of historical milestones, this is the first time three women are serving as active judges in the U.S. District Court’s history. President Joe Biden has also appointed as many women to the court in two years as his 45 predecessors combined.

About the Supreme Court

•  The past term of the Supreme Court sent shockwaves through the country, but its rulings are also having an immediate effect in the lower courts. Last week, a federal judge in Colorado temporarily blocked the town of Superior’s new gun safety regulations based on the month-old precedent in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association, Inc. v. Bruen. The high court has instructed judges to look at “historical tradition” when evaluating the constitutionality of government regulations on firearms.

“The Court is sympathetic to the Town’s stated reasoning. However, the Court is unaware of historical precedent that would permit a governmental entity to entirely ban a type of weapon that is commonly used by law-abiding citizens for lawful purposes, whether in an individual’s home or in public.” —U.S. District Court Judge Raymond P. Moore, in an order temporarily blocking Superior’s new assault weapons ban

•  Colorado Politics in June also wrote about the case of a transgender inmate who attempted to sue a prison guard for allegedly sexually assaulting her. At the time, a magistrate judge recommended dismissing the lawsuit due to another fresh Supreme Court decision, Egbert v. Boule, which narrowed the types of lawsuits that people can bring for money damages as a result of constitutional violations. Neither the plaintiff nor the defendant objected to that recommendation, and a district judge signed off on the dismissal this month.

In other federal news

•  The 10th Circuit dismissed a narrow procedural challenge to the government’s realignment of recreational trails in Rocky Flats National Wildlife Refuge. The lawsuit at times veered into a broader condemnation of the original decision to open the former nuclear site to the public at all.

•  A jury awarded $500,000 to a man who was arrested for using a forged identification at Denver International Airport, even though the forgery charge ended up being false and the police officer who wrote the probable cause statement lacked probable cause of a crime. A federal judge has now denied the officer’s request to overturn the jury’s verdict.

•  A judge declined an inmate’s request to order the Federal Bureau of Prisons to make changes to its dental policy, saying there was no imminent danger the plaintiff would lose his teeth.

•  Harold Henthorn made national news for pushing his second wife off a cliff to her death in Rocky Mountain National Park nearly two decades after his first wife died while being crushed under their car — which was officially labeled an accident. The judge who presided over Henthorn’s federal trial rejected claims that his defense lawyer’s performance was so deficient as to violate the U.S. Constitution.

•  Lafayette police officers acted reasonably by using a dog to bite an unarmed man for 20 seconds, a federal judge ruled.

•  An inmate may proceed with his lawsuit against the U.S. government for injuries he suffered in a prison yard stabbing, a judge decided.

Colorado state appeals

•  An Adams County judge borrowed a jury instruction from a colleague in a murder case. The state Court of Appeals would later deem both instructions failed to adequately explain self-defense to jurors, and ordered new trials for each case.

•  Prosecutors in El Paso County dismissed a Black man from a jury over objections from the defense that the dismissal was based on race. The Court of Appeals was unconvinced, and believed the prosecution had adequate nonracial reasons for its decision.

•  A juvenile judge in Denver dismissed jurors in a child welfare case after the mother was more than 10 minutes late to court. He then told her she had forfeited her right to a jury trial. The Court of Appeals said that was not an appropriate response and ordered a new jury trial.

•  Interrogators in Garfield County coerced a confession out of a murder suspect by saying his girlfriend would go to prison if he did not admit to the crime. The Court of Appeals ordered a new trial with the confession suppressed.

•  A Jefferson County parking garage is a public building, the Court of Appeals decided. While not exactly a groundbreaking statement, the decision means a woman can sue the county for her injuries in the garage, and Jeffco is not immune from liability.

Vacancies and appointments

•  There are six nominees for the governor to consider in filling the Adams County Court seats of resigning Judge Cindy Dang and retiring Judge Byron L. Howell. The finalists are: David Couture, Vanessa Devereaux, Michael Garlan, Jennifer Hayden, Magistrate Lara Jimenez and Joshua Nowak.

Miscellaneous decisions

•  A Boulder County judge determined the man accused of murdering 10 people at a grocery store last year is not competent to stand trial.

•  There has been confusion in southern Colorado over a chief judge’s decision to name a part-time magistrate and county judge an “acting district judge.” Some litigants and even the Court of Appeals have been puzzled about what that means. 

•  A committee of the Colorado Supreme Court secretly discussed a proposal to curtail racial bias in jury selection, which could end up before the high court in the form of a rule change.