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

A judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit spoke to a congressional subcommittee about the federal judiciary’s need for more judges, plus three state appellate judges appeared at a “Courts in the Community” event in Lakewood.

JUDGES Act

•  At the end of 2024, then-President Joe Biden vetoed the JUDGES Act, a bill that would have added 66 new trial judgeships across the country and given Colorado two new seats on its federal district court. Last week, Judge Timothy M. Tymkovich, a 10th Circuit judge from Colorado, spoke to members of a U.S. House of Representatives subcommittee to criticize the veto and reiterate the judge shortage still exists.

•  “For the first time in decades, legislation was presented to the president that would correct severe stresses on the dockets of many courts around the country,” he said. “Unfortunately, the previous administration vetoed the bill, publicly citing reasons that were not consistent with the record and reflect a misunderstanding of the facts.”

•  As with many proceedings of this type, congressional grandstanding took up more time during the hearing than Tymkovich’s comments. Although multiple members tried to get him to comment on the Trump administration’s antagonistic approach to the courts, Tymkovich generally declined to respond.

•  That included an invitation from U.S. Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., to push back against Republicans’ ongoing efforts to impeach judges who have issued rulings adverse to the administration. Tymkovich merely said those actions were “part of the political process” within Congress’ purview.

A different kind of field trip

•  Meanwhile, members of the state’s Court of Appeals took a different kind of excursion as part of the long-running Courts in the Community program. A three-judge appellate panel traveled to Green Mountain High School in Lakewood to hear oral arguments in two cases and field questions from students.

•  In response to one question, Judge Sueanna P. Johnson said that a judge’s life experiences and how they express their thoughts about certain concepts could indirectly influence the law: “The hope is that maybe along a trajectory of time, some of that language, some of that thought process, gets put into the law. Or people start seeing it in the General Assembly and they think, ‘Maybe we should change a law.'”

Heard on appeal

•  The Colorado Supreme Court agreed Weld County could not ignore a state law imposing procedural requirements on how county commissioner districts are to be redrawn post-Census.

•  Colorado State University can’t be sued for unjust enrichment over its temporary campus closure at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Supreme Court ruled.

•  The Court of Appeals decided Colorado’s current framework for adjudicating campaign finance complaints is constitutional.

•  Although criminal defendants can cross-examine witnesses who are on probation about their probationary status, that right is not automatic for witnesses who were on probation at the time of the crime, but not at the time of their testimony, the Court of Appeals ruled.

•  The Court of Appeals discovered a defect in the state’s template jury instructions for criminal trials, which incorrectly tell jurors how to convict someone for retaliating against a witness.

In federal news

•  U.S. Magistrate Judge Cyrus Y. Chung was ceremonially sworn in to Colorado’s U.S. District Court. He is a former prosecutor and the son of immigrants who is also skilled in writing computer code.

•  Two federal district judges urged lawyers to consent more often to having a magistrate judge handle their civil cases, primarily to reach a faster resolution.

•  A federal judge declined to recuse himself from a transgender rights lawsuit, concluding his courtroom policies asking people to correctly use each other’s pronouns didn’t make him biased.

•  Colorado may not withhold funds or take action against a Christian preschool solely because its policies may be discriminatory toward LGBTQ students and families, a judge ruled.

Miscellaneous proceedings

•  The state Senate approved a bill that would establish 15 new judgeships in Colorado — a decrease from the originally proposed 29 new judgeships.

•  Justice Maria E. Berkenkotter and two Denver trial judges spoke to attorneys about proper courtroom conduct, including how to think about and confront biases.

•  A state House of Representatives committee advanced a bill that would prohibit harsher punishments in municipal court than punishments given in state court for identical conduct.