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

The state Supreme Court heard four oral arguments earlier this month, plus the newest member of the Court of Appeals held her ceremonial swearing-in.

Oral arguments

•  Members of the Supreme Court seemed skeptical that the state’s Public Utilities Commission could authorize broad immunity for Xcel Energy in a rate-setting document for injuries its power lines may cause to random people.

•  Responding to a U.S. Supreme Court decision from last year, the state Supreme Court pondered whether Colorado’s existing “three-strikes” law could be reconciled with the newly recognized constitutional requirements for sentencing “habitual criminals.”

•  The Supreme Court discussed how the legislature intended for child neglect determinations to be made after lawmakers decided five years ago that a positive drug test at birth wasn’t sufficient to trigger a neglect decision.

•  When suing the government for a dangerous condition in a public building, the justices agreed that a plaintiff’s allegations of negligence aren’t sufficient to overcome governmental immunity — but they shouldn’t have to prove their entire case at the outset, either.

‘Pretty much always correct’

•  In January, Judge Melissa C. Meirink joined the 22-member Court of Appeals, and she held her formal swearing-in ceremony at the end of February. Meirink has an unusual background for a judge: For a decade, she was a Supreme Court staff attorney, where the bulk of her work was reviewing Court of Appeals decisions and making recommendations about whether they deserved Supreme Court consideration.

•  “I think my colleagues would agree about this, she was pretty much always correct. She just has such great instincts for legal analysis and is so good at thinking through these things,” said Justice Melissa Hart.

•  The addition of Meirink to the appeals court means that for the first time in its history, there is an equal number of male and female judges.

Heard on appeal

•  The Supreme Court will decide whether plaintiffs’ lawyers can import allegations from other lawsuits without personally speaking with the witnesses who made those allegations, and will also address when auto insurers may claim their policyholders failed to cooperate in an investigation.

•  The Court of Appeals clarified that gig workers who injure each other on the job aren’t bound by the $15,000 damages cap that applies to those “in the same employ.”

•  By 2-1, the Court of Appeals concluded prosecutors hadn’t proven beyond a reasonable doubt that a defendant attempted to murder two people in a six-person household when he shot indiscriminately at the ground floor.

•  Even though a trial judge slashed a father’s overnight visitations with his son, which neither parent had asked for, the Court of Appeals determined it wasn’t a “restriction” on his parenting time.

•  An Arapahoe County judge made multiple errors in a woman’s DUI trial, but the Court of Appeals concluded those ultimately didn’t affect the issue the jury needed to decide.

•  Defendants are allowed to claim they were “involuntarily intoxicated” if the drugs they knowingly took may have secretly been a different drug, but the evidence has to be more than the defendant’s assertion that the drug tasted weird, said the Court of Appeals.

Jeanette Vizguerra

•  During the first Trump administration, Jeanette Vizguerra became a well-known undocumented immigrant-turned-activist who made the list of Time’s most influential people in 2017. Now, immigration authorities have detained her in Colorado after years of reprieves and she has filed suit alleging a violation of her due process rights.

•  Although U.S. District Court Judge Nina Y. Wang will hold a hearing at the end of this week on Vizguerra’s petition, she took the unusual step of preemptively telling the government not to move Vizguerra out of Colorado or deport her from the country — something the Trump administration has done in other cases pending before federal judges.

In federal news

•  The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit agreed two Douglas County sheriff’s deputies were not entitled to immunity for releasing a dog into a man’s home to bite him based on sparse information about a crime.

•  Denver police didn’t violate the constitutional prohibition on unreasonable searches and seizures by obtaining a bullet removed from a man’s leg and using it as evidence against him, the 10th Circuit decided.

•  The 10th Circuit concluded a man could not sue for malicious prosecution because an Arvada detective had probable cause to arrest him for sexual assault — specifically, his own statements apologizing for the sexual assault.

•  Federal prison employees actually beat each other up while participating in a mock hostage-taking exercise. But a federal judge dismissed the excessive force claim against the training coordinator because of the U.S. Supreme Court’s restriction on lawsuits against federal employees who violate constitutional rights.

•  Although the defendants made a “shockingly weak” argument for why they should receive immunity, a federal judge declined to press ahead with a jury trial on the plaintiff’s claims while her decision is appealed.

•  A federal judge ordered the Elizabeth School District to return 19 restricted books to school libraries, determining the conservative school board likely voted for their removal based on political grounds in violation of the First Amendment.

•  A Colorado National Guard member who was reprimanded for making derogatory comments toward the president, vice president and others on a 2022 podcast had not presented a viable First Amendment claim against the state itself, a federal judge ruled.

•  A man ejected from an Academy District 20 school board meeting hadn’t plausibly shown that officials removed him because of his criticism, a judge decided.

Vacancies and appointments

•  The governor has appointed Magistrate Garen D. Gervey to the Arapahoe County Court, where he succeeds now-District Court Judge J. Jay Williford.

•  Applications are due by April 14 to succeed retiring Chief Judge Ingrid S. Bakke on the Boulder County District Court.

•  Applications are due by April 22 to succeed retiring Morgan County Court Judge Dennis L. Brandenburg. No law degree is necessary for this position.

•  Denver’s mayor has a list of three candidates to succeed retiring Judge Clarisse Gonzales on the Denver County Court: Magistrate Arnie Beckman, Marguerite Conboy and Jaime Cowan.

•  At the end of this month, the Court of Appeals’ retiring clerk, Polly Brock, will be succeeded by Tiffany Mortier, a motions and jurisdiction attorney for the court.

Miscellaneous proceedings

•  Justice Melissa Hart participated in a virtual event hosted by the Brennan Center for Justice about why law students and early-career lawyers should consider clerking for state supreme courts.

•  Chief Justice Monica M. Márquez spoke at MSU Denver about her philosophy on governance and democracy — specifically, that each branch should stay in its lane and the judiciary shouldn’t fix deficiencies in law for the legislature.

•  Colorado lawmakers overwhelmingly passed a bill to establish 15 new trial judgeships over the next two years. It is now awaiting action by the governor.