Colorado Politics

 Colorado voters to decide whether to ban gender surgeries for minors

Colorado voters will decide this November whether to prohibit gender surgeries for minors and bar public funding or insurance coverage for procedures that alter children’s biological sex characteristics. The measure qualified for the ballot amid a push by the federal...

 Democrats want to bar use of consumer data to set Colorado prices, employee wages

A closely divided House committee advanced a bill aimed at curbing the use of personal data to set individualized prices and wages, reviving a proposal that failed last year and setting up a broader debate over how far the state...

 10th Circuit rejects ‘potential for violence’ when police arrest vehicle occupant’s romantic partner

The Denver-based federal appeals court rejected the idea on Tuesday that a vehicle occupant poses a danger to police solely because they are romantically involved with another occupant who officers are arresting. By 2-1, a three-judge panel of the U.S....

 Colorado justices grill debt collector about compliance with law

The Colorado Supreme Court repeatedly pressed a debt collection company last week to explain how its lawsuit against a Boulder woman for an unpaid credit card balance complied with the specific requirements that state lawmakers have created. Portfolio Recovery Associates,...

 Artificial intelligence working group agrees on framework to replace Colorado law

A group that has been working on artificial intelligence policy has reached an agreement on a framework that would replace the regulations adopted by Colorado legislators two years ago. The agreement has the backing of Gov. Jared Polis, who reluctantly...

 Proposal to levy new fees on alcohol products in Colorado dies

The proposal to collect millions in new fees on alcohol products — dollars to be earmarked for Colorado programs aimed at addressing the behavioral and physical health effects of alcohol abuse — died on Tuesday. House Bill 1271 sought to...

 The numbers that Republicans say show Democratic midterm targets are a ‘political hallucination’

Democrats keep expanding their battleground map of midterm target seats, but do they really have any chance in some of the districts they claim they can win? Of the 44 districts listed by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee as targets,...

 Pam Bondi subpoenaed for April 14 House deposition on Epstein files handling

The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform issued a subpoena Tuesday compelling Attorney General Pam Bondi to sit for a deposition on April 14 as part of an ongoing investigation into the Justice Department’s handling of the Jeffrey Epstein...

 Capitol Police chief asks for record-breaking budget, citing 58% increase in threats to Congress

U.S. Capitol Police Chief Michael Sullivan on Tuesday argued sweeping threats against lawmakers justify his department’s historic budget request during a House Appropriations Committee hearing.  Sullivan testified before the Legislative Branch Subcommittee on his budget proposal for fiscal 2027 funding....

 After ‘winter of defeat,’ Colorado hopes for wetter summer

With snowpack melt already peaking in some parts of the state and drought conditions worsening compared to last year, Colorado’s water watchers are hoping for a wetter summer, though they anticipate the situation deteriorating before getting better. Meanwhile, the governor...

 Colorado, other states oppose proposal to require EV chargers be made with 100% domestic components

Colorado has joined a coalition of about 20 states in opposing a federal proposal that would require electric vehicle chargers funded with federal dollars to be made with 100% domestic components. The Federal Highway Administration is considering raising the domestic...

 Colorado ethics panel tells legislator to attend sexual harassment training

Colorado’s House ethics panel admonished a Republican legislator over allegations he used a master key to access areas of the Capitol that he was not permitted to enter and that he had made sexually harassing comments to several female lawmakers....

 Appeals court agrees defendant’s speech constitutionally protected against El Paso County judge

Colorado’s second-highest court agreed last week that a defendant’s critical statements toward an El Paso County judge were constitutionally protected and could not form the basis of a retaliation charge. A three-judge Court of Appeals panel concluded that, in context,...

 Colorado justices, 4-3, order new murder trial due to wrongfully excluded evidence

The Colorado Supreme Court agreed on Monday that a trial judge incorrectly faulted a defendant for refusing to cooperate in a mental health examination, even though the state’s hospital was the entity that botched its responsibility to evaluate her during...

 Overdose deaths from opioids dip in America — but not in Colorado, study says

Overdose deaths from opioids rose in Colorado, diverging from the national trend, which has been decreasing, according to a new study from a think tank. In its new report, the Common Sense Institute said synthetic opioid overdose deaths in Colorado...

 Colorado voters will decide whether transgender students can join girls’ sports

A ballot initiative that would require student athletes to only join sports teams that correspond to their biological sex has qualified for the November ballot, the latest development in the culture war being waged in school districts, in the courts...

 Error-prone Douglas County judge triggers another reversal of criminal convictions

Colorado’s second-highest court overturned a defendant’s Douglas County convictions on Thursday due to the error of a judge whose actions have triggered a disproportionate number of reversals to convictions and sentences in recent years. Since 2021, the Court of Appeals...

 Susie Wiles diagnosed with ‘early stage’ breast cancer: Trump

President Donald Trump announced White House chief of staff Susie Wiles has been diagnosed with “early stage” breast cancer and that she decided to take on the illness immediately. Wiles will not step down from her administrative role at this...

 Hacked crosswalks in Denver sound anti-Trump messages

Denver pedestrians got a surprise this weekend when the audio messages from push-button speakers on some crosswalks were mysteriously replaced with anti-President Donald Trump messages. “The walk signal is on, Trump … (reference to the Iran school that was bombed),”...

 Federal judge formalizes injunction blocking USDA’s ‘pilot project’ for Colorado food assistance

A federal judge formalized his order on Monday to prevent the U.S. Department of Agriculture from requiring Colorado to participate in a food assistance “pilot project,” finding that it violates the law, the U.S. Constitution, and “the bounds of reasoned...

 Colorado justices speak about inner workings of court, analysis of appellate opinions | COURT CRAWL

Welcome to Court Crawl, Colorado Politics’ roundup of news from the third branch of government. Members of the state Supreme Court provided an inside look at the workings of their institution, and a Colorado Politics analysis found that some appellate...

 Appeals court finds no requirement for different judge to handle attorney-client conflict hearings

Colorado’s second-highest court rejected a defendant’s argument on Thursday that a judge improperly heard about a potential conflict between himself and his lawyer right before sentencing, and the man’s reaction could have “tainted” the sentencing decision. In September 2023, Anthony...

 3,800 Colorado workers are on strike at JBS, one of the largest meatpacking plants in the US

GREELEY, Colo. (AP) — About 3,800 workers at one of the nation’s largest meatpacking plants went on strike Monday in Colorado in what union representatives said was the first walkout at a U.S. beef slaughterhouse in four decades. Hundreds of...

 The influencers? Some Colorado appeals judges outpace colleagues in setting legal precedent

A handful of judges on Colorado’s second-highest court are producing substantially more precedent-setting opinions than their colleagues, which create binding interpretations of the law that reach beyond individual cases. The Court of Appeals issues approximately 1,700 opinions each year. A...

 The Turnberry tension: Adams County lawsuit highlights questions around metro districts

Homeowners of a small neighborhood in Commerce City remain confused and irate about the future of their property taxes in the aftermath of a lawsuit between the metropolitan district where they live and a bank. The conflict stems from a...

 What are metro districts?

Created by the Special District Act of 1981 by the Colorado General Assembly, metro districts are quasi-governmental entities that didn’t really start showing up until the 2000s. Today, there are more than 2,400 across Colorado. A metro district is created...

 Law puts Kansas at vanguard of denying trans identities on government documents | OUT WEST ROUNDUP

KANSAS Law reverses trans documents TOPEKA — Kansas is set to invalidate about 1,700 driver’s licenses held by transgender residents and roughly as many birth certificates under a new law that goes beyond Republican-imposed restrictions in other states on listing...

 DeGette challenger Melat Kiros trounces 15-term Democratic incumbent in Denver delegate vote

The 28-year-old, first-time candidate challenging Democratic U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette in this year’s primary soundly defeated the 15-term incumbent in a delegate preference poll conducted Saturday at a county party assembly in Denver. Melat Kiros, the daughter of Ethiopian immigrants...

 Army veterans Jessica Killin, Joe Reagan qualify for Democratic primary ballot in Colorado’s 5th CD

Democratic congressional candidates Jessica Killin and Joe Reagan secured spots Saturday in Colorado’s June primary to decide who will run against Republican U.S. Rep. Jeff Crank in a district that’s only ever sent GOP lawmakers to Congress. The two Democrats,...

 Who has the power to declare war? | Cronin and Loevy

Our constitutional framers boldly and ambitiously granted Congress the power to declare war yet granted the executive the responsibility, after war is declared, to supervise war as the commander-in-chief. That worked well until the Cold War began.  The U.S. has been...