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

The state Supreme Court returns this week for an unusually short oral arguments schedule, plus a visit by the state’s Court of Appeals to a Weld County high school experienced a gun-related interruption.

A docket of 2

?  Tomorrow, the Supreme Court will hear a grand total of two oral arguments, a notable reduction from its standard five-or-six-case monthly schedule:

Klabon v. Travelers Property Casualty Company of America: At the request of a federal judge who is seeking guidance on state law, the justices will answer whether an employee who is injured on the job while driving and obtains workers’ compensation benefits can also sue their employer’s insurer for additional payment.

In the Matter of Matthew Tobin Arnold: The justices will consider whether a lawyer was erroneously denied admission to the Colorado bar.

Courts in the Community gone awry

?  The judicial branch’s long-running “Courts in the Community” program brought a three-judge panel of the Court of Appeals to Fort Lupton High School last week, where it conducted oral arguments in two real cases in front of an audience of students. Unfortunately, it seems no one at the school thought to tell the court that students were playing a game of “Assassin” with toy guns that day. Instead, a brief lockout was triggered when one court employee saw students holding what appeared to be a firearm in the parking lot. The district’s superintendent didn’t respond to questions about the incident.

A potential change to judicial retention

?  Colorado voters may see a constitutional amendment on their ballot that would raise the threshold for retaining judges from a simple majority to 55%. Last week, the Title Board advanced the citizen-initiated proposal to the signature-gathering phase. The designated representatives are former Pueblo County District Court Judge Dennis Maes and Independence Institute president Jon Caldara, both of whom are Colorado Politics opinion contributors.

?  Retired Denver County Court Judge Gary M. Jackson criticized the proposal: “Having created the Coalition on Judicial Diversity in 2019 with its mission to ensure more diversity on the court, I am more convinced than ever that the merit system is working. I have seen the increase in diversity on the bench throughout the state. ‘If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’ applies aptly to this proposed amendment. The proposition should fail.”

Heard on appeal

?  Although an El Paso County judge, the prosecutor and the defense attorney all intended to dismiss a juror for bias, they wound up removing a different juror by mistake. The Court of Appeals ordered a new trial for the defendant because the biased juror ended up serving.

?  An Arapahoe County judge properly held a defendant in contempt after he broke his cell phone in front of the judge rather than hand it over as ordered, the Court of Appeals concluded.

?  An El Paso County prosecutor and judge misstated what the only Black juror said as they dismissed him from the jury pool, but the Court of Appeals found no purposeful race discrimination at play.

?  Jurors in an Adams County criminal trial had no idea the only eyewitness to an attempted murder was himself facing prosecution by the same district attorney’s office. Because the witness’s incentive to potentially testify the way the prosecution wanted was relevant to the jury, the Court of Appeals ordered a new trial.

?  A man in El Paso County was convicted of two child sex offenses that relied on identical conduct, with one offense being punished more harshly than the other. The Court of Appeals vacated the more severe conviction to avoid a constitutional violation.

?  The Supreme Court indicated it may intervene in a Denver County Court case to determine if the defendant is entitled to remain free on bond while he appeals his misdemeanor convictions. The justices have also taken interest in an ongoing child abuse case in Jefferson County where the question is whether prosecutors established probable cause of a crime.

In federal news

?  The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit threw out a case in which a Weld County church that originally challenged the state’s COVID-19 restrictions continued to seek exemption from all future emergency health orders, pandemic-related or not.

?  Two federal judges in Colorado have now taken the extraordinary step of calling on Congress to reverse the U.S. Supreme Court’s limitations on suing federal officials for money when they violate people’s constitutional rights. Last week, U.S. District Court Senior Judge Christine M. Arguello joined Senior Judge William J. Martínez in requesting legislative action. In addition, U.S. Magistrate Judge Scott T. Varholak has also written about his distaste for the status quo.

?  Last year, in 303 Creative v. Elenis, the Supreme Court’s majority concluded Colorado could not require a Christian web designer to make websites for same-sex weddings over her religious objection. Back in Colorado, a federal judge entered an injunction against the state that wasn’t as broad as the plaintiff had hoped for.

?  A federal judge declined to intervene when Colorado “intercepted” a man’s recent multimillion-dollar jury award and applied it toward the crime victim restitution he still owed.

Vacancies and appointments

?  The district judges of Colorado’s federal trial court have voted to reappoint Magistrate Judge Scott T. Varholak to his second eight-year term, which begins in October.

?  There are three finalists to succeed retiring Jefferson County District Court Judge Ann Gail Meinster: Paula A. Holt, Adam D. Kendall and Magistrate Andrew Poland.

?  There are also three contenders to succeed retiring part-time Mineral County Court Judge Ruth M. Acheson: Carle Jessica Tarnutzer-Decker, Adrian Washington and Hollie G. Wheelwright.