A year after blocking the release of state records to federal immigration agents, a Denver judge has now denied Gov. Jared Polis’ effort to end the lawsuit at the center of the dispute.

The lawsuit filed against the governor in 2025 by Scott Moss — then the director of the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment Division of Labor Standards and Statistics — sought to prevent Polis from disclosing data sought by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Moss claimed, and the judge agreed through a temporary injunction issued last June, that complying with an administrative subpoena for information on 35 individuals who are custodians of unaccompanied minor children who are illegally staying in the U.S. would violate state laws passed in 2021 and 2024.

Notably, those state laws don’t prohibit cooperation when a court issues a subpoena.

The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has never sought to enforce that subpoena in court.

ICE claimed it wanted the information to ensure the children were not being subjected to human trafficking or other forms of exploitation. The subpoena reportedly did not provide any evidence of those claims.

In December, Polis asked for a permanent injunction and final judgment that would bar him or any other employees of the state executive branch from producing the records sought by ICE in its April 24, 2025 subpoena.

But the motion filed last December noted that the parties had not reached a settlement, instead asking the judge to resolve the case.

Jones said no.

In his latest ruling on Monday, Jones wrote that the Polis motion “is best described as a hybrid confession of judgment (only on his terms), and an offer of settlement (again on his terms).”

The court could grant the motion in part and resolve the April 24 subpoena, Jones wrote, but the plaintiff has requested “broader relief.”

And partial relief, he added, “would be inconsistent with the basic thrust of Defendant’s motion, i.e., to fully resolve the case,” he said.

Jones also noted the motion failed to identify the question of law to be determined by the court, and he noted Moss raised that issue in his response to the December motion.

Through a spokesperson, the governor’s office said “Our policy is simple and it follows the law: we cooperate on criminal investigations with the federal government regardless of whether an individual is here legally or not and we do not cooperate on non-criminal matters that are only for civil immigration enforcement. We will, as we always have, comply with all valid court orders and we are evaluating the order and next steps.”

The case, Moss v. Polis 2025CV32001, continues.

Moss left the Department of Labor and Employment last August and rejoined the faculty full-time at the CU law school, where he has been teaching since 2007.

Moss is also representing Colorado Common Cause in a series of complaints filed with the state ethics commission over the Colorado Opportunity Caucus retreat in Vail last fall, in which caucus members, a dozen Democratic lawmakers, allegedly accepted funds from a dark money group to cover the retreat’s expenses.