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

The state Supreme Court heard arguments in multiple cases earlier this month, and Colorado’s solicitor general spoke about her recent experience appearing before the nation’s highest court in a case of political significance.

Ski injuries, ill jurors and more

•  When a juror’s illness rendered him unable to serve after 11 hours of deliberations, a trial judge substituted the alternate juror and told everyone to completely restart their discussion. The state Supreme Court considered whether the judge’s detailed instructions for the jury were enough to save the verdict of conviction.

•  Some members of the Supreme Court were uncomfortable with the idea that ski resorts could induce customers to give up their right to sue over injuries on ski lifts, given that state law imposes on lift operators a legal duty to their customers.

•  Arapahoe County prosecutors removed two women of color from juries after they indicated they had negative experiences with police based on their race. The Supreme Court considered whether dismissing jurors due to their concerns about police bias — when those concerns stem from the jurors’ own experiences — is racial in nature. As a reminder, there is a rule change pending before the justices that would deter such dismissals going forward.

In other Supreme Court news

•  The court upheld the 2008 murder convictions of Sir Mario Owens, one of the final men on death row at the time Colorado’s legislature abolished capital punishment. The justices concluded there was no intentional racial discrimination in Owens’ jury selection, nor did any alleged evidentiary problems merit a reversal of his convictions.

•  Although the legislature changed the law in 2023 to allow tenants to use their landlords’ discriminatory behavior as a defense to eviction, the Supreme Court clarified that the state’s fair housing laws always provided for such a defense.

•  The state’s Court of Appeals previously held that emergency responders can be sued for injuries they cause when they exceed the speed limit and do not immediately activate their lights and sirens. The Supreme Court said that rule was too broad and ordered further analysis about an Olathe officer’s potential immunity for killing two men in a car crash.

•  For more than a decade, an attorney filed frivolous cases against her opponents and was even disbarred for her misconduct. Now, the Supreme Court has prohibited her from pursuing any more cases on her own.

•  The Supreme Court has agreed to hear a case out of Arapahoe County that asks under what conditions a felony murder defendant — i.e. the person who didn’t pull the trigger — can make use of an affirmative defense. The justices also took up a case that questions whether the Court of Appeals is defanging a landmark decision governing restitution to crime victims with its own rulings.

One lawyer’s experience at SCOTUS

•  Earlier this month, the U.S. Supreme Court held oral arguments in a case out of Colorado that explores whether Donald Trump is constitutionally disqualified from holding future office because he engaged in insurrection. Although Colorado’s secretary of state was not a central player in the underlying case, the Supreme Court afforded 10 minutes to Shannon Stevenson, the state’s solicitor general, to argue why Colorado’s use of its elections procedures was appropriate for a presidential disqualification. Here is an excerpt from her Q&A with Colorado Politics:

Colorado Politics: Sitting there listening and watching before you got to speak, was it a different experience than sitting at home livestreaming the arguments?

Shannon Stevenson: I think the main difference — I’ve listened to a lot of Supreme Court arguments. There is a real difference in what you hear on the audio and what you can read in their body language when you’re sitting right up there looking at them. It was materially different, actually, to be able to see the justices and see their facial expressions and their body language. It’s great to be able to have the audio for all the arguments, but it was truly different seeing it right there up close.

When I was answering questions myself, people who listened to the audio sort of have the reaction of, “You were being interrupted. They didn’t let you finish.” It actually didn’t feel that way in the moment. There is more of a give-and-take than what comes through on the audio. What might sound like you being interrupted is the justice saying, “I understand what you’re saying. Let me ask something else because I know where you’re going.” It doesn’t feel as abrupt and feels a little more natural than it may come through on the audio. …

CP: Is there anything you thought of afterward that you wish you had said during your time at the microphone? 

Stevenson: I think I said it, but I wish I could have said it even more fulsomely, just to alleviate this sort of concern about states doing different things in this context. For people who work in state election administration, this is just such a normal way of things. I feel like there was much skepticism or resistance or concern about having 50 different states run their presidential elections in different ways.

I think if I had sort of understood that that would be the temperament of everyone coming in, I might have said more about that because it’s such an important notion to convey – which is the Constitution give states broad powers to run their elections. And there are inconsistencies in the ballot and we shouldn’t make exceptions to that important process for one particular case.

Heard on appeal

•  Car rental companies can be sued as if they were insurers when they offer accident coverage and don’t pay up, the Court of Appeals concluded.

•  Del Norte officials violated Colorado’s open meetings law when they reached a decision behind closed doors to censure one of the town board members.

•  Even though a man’s attempted sex assault conviction was ultimately dismissed, the Court of Appeals said he still has to register as a sex offender due to an “anomaly” in the law.

•  A Pitkin County judge wrongly held a mother in contempt without addressing the fact that she couldn’t go back in time and fix her actions that led to the violation, the Court of Appeals ruled.

•  Even if a lawsuit can’t proceed as a class action, it can still move forward on the claim of whoever filed the complaint, the Court of Appeals clarified.

•  Judges don’t have to find that a child is endangered before they cast a “tie-breaking” vote when two parents are deadlocked about the best course of action.

•  In an unusual case where a defendant’s conviction hinged upon their gender identity, the Court of Appeals concluded prosecutors presented enough evidence to prove the defendant identified as male.

In federal news

•  The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit agreed with both the prosecution and the defense that a trial judge shouldn’t have charted his own course and determined a man’s prior conviction amounted to a violent crime.

Vacancies and appointments

•  Applications are due by March 15 to succeed part-time Lincoln County Court Judge Truston Lee Fisher, who is retiring after 37 years on the bench. The deadline to fill a previously announced Mineral County Court vacancy has also been extended to March 15.

•  Applications are due by March 22 to succeed retiring District Court Judge Ann Gail Meinster in the First Judicial District (Jefferson and Gilpin counties).

•  Applications are due by February 26 to succeed former Denver Juvenile Court Presiding Judge D. Brett Woods (see below).

Miscellaneous proceedings

•  The presiding judge of the Denver Juvenile Court, D. Brett Woods, stepped down amid a misconduct investigation whose details remain withheld from the public.

•  Retired District Court Judge Julie Field, who was on the bench in Larimer County for almost 11 years, shared how the skills she developed as an improvisational comedy actor helped with her work of judging.

•  The state public defender’s office has been digging out from a cyberattack earlier this month that crippled its computer systems.