Colorado Politics

 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...

 Latest death brings down wolves’ survival rate to 44% in Colorado

The female wolf of the mating pair for the King Mountain pack has died, bringing total fatalities to 14 out of the 25 animals reintroduced in Colorado. The wolf, identified as No. 2310, was among the 10 wolves brought to...

 The delicate, ever-changing dance between politics and religion | SONDERMANN

The dance, really a marathon that brings to mind the classic movie “They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?”, has been going on as long as there have been governments and organized religion. That is to say that this delicate tango has...

 Roasts, get yer roasts, here: Capitol M | Week of March 14, 2026

The lighter side of the Capitol, especially in the past week Apparently, the pending and eventual switch to daylight stupid time has put people in some pretty funny moods. And thank goodness! On March 4, the Senate approved the appointments...

 Polly Baca elected to DNC | A LOOK BACK

Forty-Five Years Ago This Week: After her loss to Republican U.S. Rep. Hank Brown the previous year in the race for the 4th Congressional District, state. Sen Polly Baca-Barragan, D-Thortnon, was elected as one of the three vice-chairs of the...

 Colorado Politics Calendar Mar. 16-22

CoPo’s weekly political calendar will help you find political and public-policy events throughout Colorado. It includes candidate and issue campaign events, public policy meetings, court hearings, state and local party conventions, assemblies, debates, rallies, parades, speaking engagements, traveling dignitary appearances,...

 Boebert challenger Eileen Laubacher joins lawsuit aimed at blocking her from Democratic assembly

A Denver District Court judge on Thursday permitted Democratic congressional candidate Eileen Laubacher to join a lawsuit filed by one of her primary opponents seeking to prevent Laubacher from participating in the party’s assembly process in a bid to qualify...

 Colorado justices weigh fairness concerns after defendant prevailed despite ghosting case

Members of the Colorado Supreme Court struggled on Tuesday to balance the need for one defendant to shield itself against a plaintiff’s claim that its employee sexually assaulted her child, and the fact that the employee legally admitted the allegations...

 House Ethics Committee to begin hearing on Weinberg complaint

The House Ethics Committee on Tuesday will begin a hearing requested by Rep. Ron Weinberg, R-Loveland, tied to an ethics complaint filed against him by Rep. Brandi Bradley, R-Roxborough Park. The ethics committee had found probable cause on two issues...

 Iran war enters next phase of destroying entire missile supply chain: Hegseth

Secretary of War Pete Hegseth said the war with Iran was entering a new phase, as the United States was focusing on destroying Tehran’s defense industrial base. At a Friday Pentagon briefing, Hegseth and Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint...

 Jeffco Public Schools found in violation of Title IX

Civil rights office: Male students occupy 61 roster positions on girls’ sports teams The U.S. Department of Education announced Friday that the Jeffco Public Schools district violated Title IX by permitting male students to access female bathrooms and compete in...

 Colorado plans to slash interim committee work amid budget woes

In a tight-budget year, the work of interim committees — those off-session groups that look at transportation, agriculture, water, healthcare, wildfires, pensions, and anything else lawmakers want to look at — is on the chopping block. And this year, no...