Today is March 25, 2024, and here’s what you need to know:

Heavy docket: Study recommends Colorado's second-highest court expand by 25% to handle workload | COVER STORY

Last summer, a report commissioned by the judicial branch illustrated how pressed the judges and staff are. The National Center for State Courts conducted a study of the court’s workload and recommended adding at least six judgeships — and perhaps as many as nine.

The legislature last authorized an increase to the court’s size over 15 years ago, boosting the number of judges from 19 to 22 starting in 2008. That year, the Court of Appeals issued slightly more opinions than it currently does.

However, even if the raw numbers have remained roughly constant, there are other factors affecting the court’s workload and the output of its members.

“The COA workload has been impacted by the rising number of appeals and the increased complexity of the cases being heard before the court since the last expansion of the court in 2008,” the report noted. “Judges at the COA have responded to this increased workload by working in excess of the standard expected work-year.”

University of Colorado considers concealed carry firearms ban

The University of Colorado’s governing board on Tuesday began discussing a proposal to ban weapons that are lawfully carried concealed, even as state Democratic lawmakers are also considering prohibiting them in “sensitive” places, such as parks and higher education buildings.

While the proposed change cannot be voted on until the board of regents’ June meeting, battle lines have expectedly already formed, with critics insisting that such a policy would turn Colorado’s campuses into “soft targets” with little defense against criminals, while supporters insist guns have no place in an academic environment.

A similar debate is unfolding at Colorado’s state Capitol, where Democrats are pushing for gun restrictions on multiple fronts, including a proposal to ban “assault” weapons — defined in the legislation as 13 different types of weapons that include Uzis, Thompson, AK and AR-type guns.

The looming debate at the University of Colorado is more specific — whether to prohibit guns on campus even for people who have obtained concealed carry permits.

Republican state chair Dave Williams wins top-line in Colorado's 5th Congressional District primary

Dave Williams, the chairman of the Colorado Republican Party, won top-line designation Saturday in the GOP’s 5th Congressional District primary amid complaints the former state lawmaker has used party resources to promote his campaign and bash a primary opponent.

Williams will face at least one other candidate in the June 25 primary for the seat held by retiring U.S. Rep. Doug Lamborn, the Colorado Springs Republican who announced at the beginning of the year that he wouldn’t seek a ninth term representing the heavily Republican district.

Republican Jeff Crank, a podcaster and executive with the Koch network’s Americans for Prosperity, qualified for the primary ballot by petition this week, while state Sen. Bob Gardner, R-Colorado Springs, is awaiting word on whether petition signatures he submitted on Tuesday are sufficient.

Polis, corrections director immune from man's lawsuit over prison work program, appeals court rules

Gov. Jared Polis and the former director of the Colorado Department of Corrections are immune from an incarcerated man’s lawsuit for money damages over the state’s prison work program, the Court of Appeals ruled on Thursday.

John Patrick Fletcher, who resides at Buena Vista Correctional Facility, sought roughly $2 million from Polis and Dean Williams, who resigned as corrections director at the end of 2022. Fletcher’s claims relied on the theory that the state’s general requirement for inmates to perform labor is unconstitutional in the wake of a voter-enacted change to prohibit involuntary servitude in all instances.

More specifically, Fletcher argued Polis and Williams did not enjoy government employees’ broad immunity to liability because they lacked the constitutional authority to operate the prison labor program in the first place — meaning they were acting outside their roles as public officials.

A three-judge appellate panel found that argument unconvincing.

Democratic legislators and the jerk of the knee | SONDERMANN

In his latest column, Eric Sondermann explored what he calls the “entirely predictable and essentially silly kinks of Democrats.” Read more here: 

We will start with education. Democrats seem born with an innate, inexplicable hostility to charter schools. It must be coded deep in their DNA. Whenever given the reins of power, the Democratic instinct is to whittle away or worse at charters and the ability of parents to exercise this choice.

This year’s assault comes in the form of HB24-1363, with the innocuous title “Charter Schools Accountability.” “Mom and apple pie” must have already been used on some other legislation.