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

The state Supreme Court will hold oral arguments this week with a focus on Colorado’s crime victim restitution law, plus the chief justice is asking the legislature to add 28 new judgeships over the next two years.

Argument calendar

•  It’s “restitution week” at the Supreme Court. Of the eight cases being argued on Tuesday and Wednesday, five pertain to a single subject: Will the court stand by its ruling from three years ago that clarified how trial judges should be awarding financial restitution to crime victims?

•  In broad terms, Colorado law imposes a 91-day deadline for trial judges to order restitution following a defendant’s sentencing. The Supreme Court, in 2021, issued a landmark decision called People v. Weeks that recognized judges and prosecutors were treating the deadline as a mere suggestion. Weeks held that if judges don’t follow the process, they lose their authority to award restitution.

•  As the Court of Appeals has used that seemingly straightforward instruction to overturn non-compliant restitution orders, the Colorado Attorney General’s Office has advocated hard to limit or overturn Weeks. Which brings us to the five appeals now before the Supreme Court. Will the justices retreat from Weeks, or will they tell the government to take its concerns with the law to the legislature?

•  In non-restitution news, here are the other cases the court will hear:

Holcim U.S. Inc. v. Colorado Public Utilities Commission et al.: Is it unreasonable to impose a flat surcharge on a utility’s customers — regardless of how much electricity they actually used — to recover the extra costs incurred during a winter snowstorm?

Board of Governors v. Alderman: Can a student of Colorado State University sue for unjust enrichment because the school closed its physical campus during the COVID-19 pandemic without providing refunds?

People v. Gallegos: Did a defendant convicted of felony murder — meaning he wasn’t the shooter — need to admit he participated in robbing the victim before he can assert a defense to the shooting itself?

•  The Supreme Court also recently agreed to hear a case questioning whether decades-old violations of a defendant’s constitutional right to counsel mean his prior offenses can’t be used against him today.

Judicial Department’s budget request

•  The state’s Judicial Department submitted its budget request to the legislature for fiscal year 2025-2026 and the top item on the wish list is the establishment of 25 new trial judgeships and three additional judges on the Court of Appeals.

•  Speaking at the Colorado Bar Association’s headquarters last week, Chief Justice Monica M. Márquez said a combination of high caseloads, threats and incivility, and demands on judges’ time are leading to burnout and fewer people willing to do the job.

•  She also briefly spoke about her comments from earlier this month that addressed a high-profile elections case the Colorado Supreme Court decided, and about her own experience in this year’s judicial retention election.

Heard on appeal

•  Former New York City mayor and Donald Trump surrogate Rudy Giuliani may be sued for defamation over his unproven assertions of election-rigging in the 2020 presidential race, the Court of Appeals concluded.

•  By 2-1, the Court of Appeals ruled defendants don’t need to go through the parole board’s appeal process in its entirety before challenging a revocation of their parole in court.

•  A coroner’s conclusion that a cause of death is “undetermined” doesn’t prevent prosecutors from presenting their own evidence of a homicide, the Court of Appeals decided.

•  Judge Ted C. Tow III suggested the legislature clarify who is eligible for payments made to exonerated defendants. Does a person have to be innocent of the crime they were convicted of? Or innocent of any related criminal conduct, as well?

•  People who are injured by negligent electric scooter riders can’t sue the scooter companies themselves for simply making the devices available for use.

In federal news

•  With an incoming Republican administration and Republican-controlled U.S. Senate, Colorado Politics examined the potential for a Colorado-based vacancy on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit. Specifically, Judge Timothy M. Tymkovich may elect to step aside as an active judge, in which case there appears to be a front-runner for his seat: his former clerk, U.S. District Court Judge Daniel D. Domenico. There are other rumored candidates in the mix, should a vacancy arise.

•  A federal judge upheld a man’s misdemeanor convictions for video recording inside a U.S. Social Security Administration office without authorization, notwithstanding his First Amendment arguments.

•  Jurors in a civil trial weren’t unduly influenced by an incarcerated plaintiff’s appearance in shackles, a judge decided.

•  A Denver officer is entitled to qualified immunity for tasing a suspect between four and eight times while the man was trying to evade arrest.

•  Chief U.S. Magistrate Judge Michael E. Hegarty predicted his upcoming retirement will not negatively affect the amount of settlement conferences that occur at Colorado’s federal trial court, despite his status as a prolific facilitator of settling civil cases.

Vacancies and appointments

•  Pursuant to a constitutional amendment Colorado voters enacted in 2022 to facilitate the creation of the new 23rd Judicial District in Douglas, Elbert and Lincoln counties, the governor has indicated which judges from the current 18th Judicial District (which will just be Arapahoe County moving forward) will be changing jurisdictions in January. They are:

Ryan J. Stuart (the new chief judge)

Andrew Baum

Victoria Klingensmith

Ben L. Leutwyler

Robert Lung

Theresa Slade

Elizabeth B. Volz

Daniel Warhola

•  Civil litigator and family law attorney Nicoal C. Sperrazza is the new executive director of the Colorado Bar Association and Denver Bar Association.

Miscellaneous proceedings

•  Rep. Meg Froelich, D-Greenwood Village, met with the state’s chief justice to discuss problems with how judges and magistrates respond to allegations of abuse in domestic relations cases.

•  The Colorado Bureau of Investigation is facing criticism over its process to investigate misconduct by DNA analyst Yvonne “Missy” Woods, whose actions have called into question an unknown number of criminal convictions.

On break

•  Court Crawl will be on break next week and will return after the Thanksgiving holiday.