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

The Colorado Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in eight cases this week, plus one of its members is on an unexplained and open-ended leave of absence from the court.

Oral arguments

•  Beginning on Tuesday morning, here is the scheduled list of cases the Supreme Court will consider:

People v. Day: Did a judge improperly exclude evidence of a defendant’s mental condition from her murder trial?

Unite for Colorado v. Colorado Department of State et al.: As the law existed in 2020, was a group that spent $4 million on ballot issues required to disclose its donors?

CenturyLink, Inc. et al. v. Houser: What happens when a lawyer “borrows” allegations from litigation elsewhere that support their client’s own allegations?

Hinds v. Foreman: When the law says anti-SLAPP (First Amendment-related) orders get appealed to the Court of Appeals, but the Colorado Constitution says county court decisions get appealed to district courts, what must happen when someone tries to appeal an anti-SLAPP decision from county court?

Ralph L. Wadsworth Construction Company, LLC v. Regional Rail Partners et al.: If a subcontractor is owed money on public works projects, what types of funds may it legitimately claim under the law and, if it exaggerates those claims, must it ultimately receive nothing?

Sandoval v. City of Colorado Springs: Are traffic lights “conflicting” when one direction is cycling normally and the perpendicular direction has lights that are inoperable?

United Services Automobile Association et al. v. Wenzell: How can insurance companies properly invoke a defense that a policyholder failed to cooperate in a claims investigation?

Phillips v. People: Should the charges be dismissed against a defendant because the prosecution appealed a judge’s decision in the middle of trial, even though it wasn’t immediately appealable?

•  There will also be a hearing about proposed changes to the rules for attorney regulation and discipline, although several commenters have argued the rules should go further and permit lawyers to be investigated at any time for unlawful sexual behavior.

Where is Justice Hart?

•  As of last week, Justice Melissa Hart had not participated in two straight weeks of decisions about which appeals the Supreme Court should hear or not hear. That’s on top of the week of oral arguments she missed in October. Furthermore, last week the court issued an opinion with only six justices, with Hart not being listed on the final decision.

•  A judicial branch spokesperson said Hart has been on a “temporary personal leave of absence” since Oct. 28.

•  Although it’s possible this has happened before, multiple appellate attorneys told Colorado Politics that they couldn’t remember this situation occurring during the court’s September-June term.

Other Supreme Court news

•  By 5-1, the Supreme Court ruled that an El Paso County judge was wrong to remove a prosecutor from a case after he said he hoped the defendant would stab public defenders if he were released from custody. The DA’s office subsequently indicated it removed the prosecutor from the case on its own at some point.

•  Carrie Thompson, who formerly managed the Colorado Springs public defender’s office, agreed that the standard for obtaining a special prosecutor is very high, but she believed it was best for the prosecutor to be taken off the case: “I think that’s responsible for the DA’s office to do that. I think what they did is exactly the right thing and that’s the way it should’ve happened.”

•  The Supreme Court approved revisions to the rules governing magistrates, importantly by clarifying how magistrates’ orders can be reconsidered and appealed.

•  The Supreme Court also loosened the rules for how licensed legal paraprofessionals operate, after hearing that there were unnecessary and counterproductive limitations on the ability of LLPs to represent their domestic relations clients in court.

•  Based on recent comprehensive legislation from the General Assembly, the Supreme Court suspended its own rules for how child welfare cases operate when there is a child or family with tribal lineage.

Heard on appeal

•  Judge Ted C. Tow III will become the next chief judge of the Court of Appeals next summer, where he will serve a four-year term in the role.

•  The Court of Appeals decided the surviving parents of Kendrick Castillo weren’t entitled to a civil jury trial over their son’s 2019 shooting death because the defendant was ready to pay the maximum damages they could recover under the law.

•  An appellate judge wondered whether reviewing courts should have slightly more latitude when considering trial judges’ decisions to terminate parents’ legal rights.

• A Denver judge incorrectly sanctioned the prosecution for a police officer’s decision to delete his body cam video of a vehicle search, the Court of Appeals decided.

• A Court of Appeals panel recently had this to say about an attorney’s approach to litigating a family law appeal. The judges who disapproved were Matthew D. Grove (author), Jerry N. Jones and Timothy J. Schutz:

In federal news

• The U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments in a class action lawsuit out of Colorado related to alleged human trafficking in immigration detention, but the issue for SCOTUS is aimed at appellate procedure.

•  By 2-1, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit agreed that a specific, four-decade-old banking law did not prohibit Colorado from capping the interest rates charged by out-of-state banks to Colorado residents.

Vacancies and appointments

•  The governor has three nominees to succeed retiring District Court Judge Mary E. Deganhart in the Seventh Judicial District (Delta, Gunnison, Hinsdale, Montrose, Ouray and San Miguel counties): Montrose County Court Judge Laura E.H. Harvell, Julie J. Huffman, and Larimer and Hinsdale County Magistrate James R. McDonald.

•  There are two finalists to succeed former Kiowa County Court Judge Pamela E. Johnston: Ryan Brandt and Sabrina Dawn James.

Miscellaneous proceedings

•  The man accused of murdering three people in 2015 at a Colorado Springs Planned Parenthood facility remains incompetent to proceed.