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

The state Supreme Court has a new chief justice thanks to a recent change in how the court picks its leader, plus a trial judge’s order temporarily halted an effort to remove the chair of the Colorado Republican Party.

Introducing Chief Justice Márquez

•  Upon the retirement of Chief Justice Nathan B. Coats at the end of 2020, the Colorado Supreme Court announced a new method of selecting the head of the state’s judicial branch. Largely owing to the fact that the current Supreme Court membership is roughly the same age, the justices adopted a rotational system that would allow multiple people to serve as chief over the coming years.

•  Beginning in 2021, Brian D. Boatright, the second-most senior member, stepped in as chief justice. He previously told Colorado Politics that being a former trial judge, he felt it was important that someone with his experience helm the judicial branch during the early years of the COVID-19 pandemic.

•  On Friday, the longest-serving justice, Monica M. Márquez, succeeded Boatright as the chief justice. Appointed in 2010 by Gov. Bill Ritter, Márquez is the first Latina, third woman and second openly LGBTQ person to be chief justice.

•  “I am deeply grateful to Chief Justice Boatright for his leadership. He has overseen significant changes to the administration of the branch in recent years, and his humble leadership has been a model for all of us,” said Márquez in a statement. “I am also committed to strengthening our relationships with government and community partners and making the Judicial Branch an exceptional workplace.”

•  Although the Judicial Department’s announcement four years ago indicated Márquez would be the “on deck” chief justice after Boatright, the Supreme Court hasn’t yet named Márquez’s successor. By seniority, Justice William W. Hood III would be next in line.

A look back at the Supreme Court’s term

• Colorado Politics’ cover story this week looked at some of the statistics behind the state Supreme Court’s July 2023-June 2024 term. Among the more interesting findings, Márquez authored the most dissents, while Justices Richard L. Gabriel and Melissa Hart wrote the most majority opinions. Márquez and Hart were most often in dissent together, and Gabriel put the most words on a page.

• Multiple lawyers also spoke to Colorado Politics about a couple of basic transparency tweaks they would like to see at the state Supreme Court: the justices disclosing their reasons for recusing from a case and also announcing the appeals they turn down directly from the trial courts.

Intra-party feud reaches court

•  Dave Williams, the chair of the state GOP and an unsuccessful candidate for Congress this year, filed suit against the leaders of a movement to oust him from his chairmanship. The dissidents were scheduled to hold a meeting on Saturday to consider his ouster. However, an Arapahoe County judge granted Williams’ request for a temporary restraining order the day before, resulting in a brief suspension of the removal effort.

Heard on appeal

•  The state’s Court of Appeals concluded a Boulder County judge improperly dismissed a man’s petition for postconviction relief, even though it was possible his previous lawyer was not authorized to practice law at the time he represented the defendant.

•  Paramedics’ inability to draw a DUI suspect’s blood after 10 minutes of trying amounted to an “extraordinary circumstance” that excused law enforcement from giving the man a blood test, the Court of Appeals ruled.

•  A Morgan County prosecutor violated the prohibition against using a defendant’s constitutional right to silence to suggest he is guilty, the Court of Appeals decided in reversing the defendant’s felony conviction.

Voter intimidation trial ends in defendants’ favor

•  After the 2020 presidential election, a group that doubted the integrity of the results organized a door-to-door operation in multiple counties to ask voters about their registrations and method of casting ballots. Subsequently, a collection of civic organizations sued, claiming the search for alleged election fraud amounted to voter intimidation under federal law. Originally, a trial judge permitted the lawsuit to proceed to a bench trial on the representation that one voter was intimidated by the group’s canvassers.

•  However, after a three-day trial this month, it became apparent that the voter didn’t know which group the canvassers who visited her house were affiliated with, the plaintiffs wanted to inject a different set of victims mid-trial, and both sides wanted to litigate matters other than voter intimidation in Colorado. Consequently, U.S. District Court Judge Charlotte N. Sweeney sided with the defendants.

In federal news

•  The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit clarified that incarcerated plaintiffs need to go through the process of filing a prison grievance before they can sue for violations of their rights, even if the alleged violation takes place outside of the prison.

•  Two 10th Circuit judges became the first to nudge the U.S. Supreme Court to reconsider its longstanding petty offense exception to the constitutional right to a jury trial in “all criminal prosecutions.”

•  U.S. District Court Judge S. Kato Crews spoke about his first six months in the role, saying there was a different weight to the decisions compared to his prior job as a magistrate judge and that he is in his courtroom a lot less — a change he deemed “differently isolating.”

•  Crews and U.S. District Court Chief Judge Philip A. Brimmer also appeared before a group of federal practitioners to describe how cases are assigned to new judges and provide tips for litigating in federal court. Two federal magistrate judges, Michael E. Hegarty and Scott T. Varholak, explained that they are generally the ones litigants interact with throughout a case, with district judges only seeing the parties face-to-face right before trial.

•  A judge blocked the town of Castle Rock from enforcing its land use code against a church seeking to operate a temporary homeless shelter in its parking lot, with the case presenting an opportunity to require greater faith-based exemptions from government regulations, should it reach the Supreme Court.

Vacancies and appointments

•  The governor appointed Marika Frady — a practitioner of family law, criminal defense and child neglect cases — to be an El Paso County Court judge, where she succeeds now-District Court Judge Dennis L. McGuire.

Miscellaneous proceedings

•  The Denver County Court has inaugurated the state’s 11th competency court, meaning a team will look at defendants charged with misdemeanors who may be incompetent to proceed, and potentially divert them to treatment and support services outside of the formal legal competency process.

•  A Denver District Court judge has blocked the proposed merger between Kroger and Albertsons until a trial can be held this fall.