As reported in Friday’s Face The State (”Judge clears the way for Clear the Bench“),

plaintiff Clear the Bench Colorado (CTBC) has won some key battles in its effort to prove that a consortium of groups behind the Know Your Judge website constituted a political committee that failed to comply with laws governing spending and electioneering.

Last week, an administrative law judge denied a motion by Know Your Judge to quash CTBC’s subpoenas and another motion seeking a protective order limiting the amount of discovery in the case.

The victory is all the more remarkable because the case against the “Know Your Judge” consortium is being argued by a non-attorney: CTBC’s citizen-soldier Director Matt Arnold.  Despite a litany of legal maneuvering and a barrage of legal briefs filed by the high-powered (and highly-paid) attorneys representing the legal-establishment special-interest groups making up the “Know Your Judge” Campaign, it was CTBC’s clear, concise reasoning that won the day:

Know Your Judge, which is represented by a team of lawyers - including former Speaker of the House Terrance Carroll - said in its motion to quash that the subpoenas were irrelevant, unreasonable and overly broad.

CTBC’s Response Brief demonstrated otherwise, laying out the grounds for requested discovery (getting the facts, which KYJ’s defense attorneys attempted to suppress) and the judge agreed:

Judge Judith Schulman was unconvinced by Know Your Judge’s motions, writing that “intent clearly is a relevant factor in establishing the elements of CTBC’s claim that Respondents constituted a political committee.” She also denied the defendants motion for a protective order, noting they’d failed to show that the records requested under subpoena contained any “privileged or private information that requires special protection.”

Although the legal game is far from over, at the end of the first period of play, so far it’s Underdog: 2, Big Bad Lawyers: 0

Score another one for the underdog!

As the Face The State article notes:

The matter is currently scheduled for a hearing Feb. 23. If the complaint is upheld, the defendants can be levied fines of $50 per day for late reporting, plus two to five times the amount of contributions. The latter fine would equal between $170,000 and $425,000.

The fight to reform Colorado’s corrupt legal/judicial complex continues.  Clear The Bench Colorado is working to hold the consortium of legal-establishment special-interest groups who attempted (and may have succeeded in) buying the election for their buddies on the bench accountable for violations of Colorado campaign finance law.  Longer term, Clear The Bench Colorado will work with legislators and others interested in reforming the systemic shortcomings of Colorado’s “merit selection & retention” system to increase transparency and accountability to the public.  For both endeavors, we would appreciate your continued support - via your comments (Sound Off!) and, yes, your contributions.  Freedom isn’t free -nor is it always easy to be a Citizen, not a subject.

Ultimately, though - it’s worth the effort.

Clear The Bench Colorado Director Matt Arnold discussed the Colorado judicial accountability effort in 2010 (and beyond) on the Rob McNealy show, Thursday 13 January 2011.

(Listen to the podcast here - the segment starts at the 47:00 minute mark)

The fight to reform Colorado’s corrupt legal/judicial complex continues.  Clear The Bench Colorado is working to hold the consortium of legal-establishment special-interest groups who attempted (and may have succeeded in) buying the election for their buddies on the bench accountable for violations of Colorado campaign finance law.  Longer term, Clear The Bench Colorado will work with legislators and others interested in reforming the systemic shortcomings of Colorado’s “merit selection & retention” system to increase transparency and accountability to the public.  For both endeavors, we would appreciate your continued support - via your comments (Sound Off!) and, yes, your contributions.  Freedom isn’t free -nor is it always easy to be a Citizen, not a subject.

Ultimately, though - it’s worth the effort.

Newly appointed Colorado Supreme Court Chief Justice Michael Bender (who was retained in office by the most narrow margin in Colorado history for an incumbent state supreme court justice along with his colleague, and ideological ally, Alex Martinez) delivered his first “State of the Judiciary” address before a joint session of the Colorado General Assembly on Friday, 11 January.

(Highlights and full text of the address were published Monday (14 January) by Law Week Colorado, “Colo. Judicial Branch Lean, Efficient Says Chief Justice In State Of Judiciary Address“)

Unsurprisingly, Chief Justice Bender painted a rosy (and self-serving) picture of the state of Colorado’s judicial branch, touting the successes of some specialty courts (a veterans’ court in El Paso County, and a truancy court in Pueblo County) along with some personnel and administrative efficiencies achieved statewide.  Bender even went so far as to claim credit for the judiciary having “helped balance the state budget” through various cost-cutting measures, and went on to claim that Colorado “continues to lead the nation in court technology applications” such as a new “statewide e-filing system for all cases” designed to increase efficiency and “yield additional revenue.”  (Since when is “yielding additional revenue” a function of the courts?)  Oh, and speaking of revenue - he was able to get in a plug for the new $258M judicial complex financed by a combination of debt (er, “not-debt”) and new “fees.”

Although the listed accomplishments are laudable achievements, they amount to somewhat superficial marginalia - not quite as trivial as tinkering with the deck chairs on the Titanic, but rather missing the point on the primary function of the courts: upholding the rule of law.

A more accurate assessment of the actual state of Colorado’s judiciary in that regard was contained in the American Tort Reform Association’s annual “Judicial Hellholes” report for 2010, released just last month. The report lists Colorado as one of only three state supreme courts nationwide to qualify for the dubious “honor” of being declared a “judicial hellhole” (Colorado joins Michigan and perennial favorite West Virginia in being so recognized).

“Traditionally, Judicial Hellholes have been considered places where civil judges systematically apply laws and court procedures in an unfair and unbalanced manner, generally against defendants in civil lawsuits,” explains ATRA general counsel Victor Schwartz.  “The jurisdictions we name as Judicial Hellholes each year are not the only unfair courts in the nation, but they are among the most unfair, based on our survey of litigants and considerable independent research.”

Actions speak louder than words; and although Bender’s speech gives lip service to the primacy of the rule of law, his actions on the bench have demonstrated the opposite.  Indeed, Bender has been one of the most egregious perpetrators of putting personal views (his own) above the letter of the law.

The hypocrisy is stunning.  Justice Bender opened his remarks with reference to our 2nd President:

As John Adams, one of our founding fathers, said we are a government of laws, not men.

“. . . that a form of government which unites all virtue . . . in a reverence and obedience to the laws, is the only one in which liberty can be secure, and all orders and ranks compelled to prefer the public good before their own; that is the government for which we plead.”

Adams’ point rings true today — to have a government that secures liberty and freedom, all branches of the government must be obedient to the law.

Yes, Justice Bender; ALL branches of the government.

To paraphrase another great president, “I knew John Adams…  John Adams is my great-great-great-something grandfather [Ed. on my mother's side; true fact] and you’re no John Adams.”

Have you no shame, sir?

Such contrast between rhetoric and reality; the true “State of the Judiciary” in Colorado.

The fight to reform Colorado’s corrupt legal/judicial complex continues.  Clear The Bench Colorado is working to hold the consortium of legal-establishment special-interest groups who attempted (and may have succeeded in) buying the election for their buddies on the bench accountable for violations of Colorado campaign finance law.  (Perhaps not coincidentally, Justice Bender sits on the board of one of the defendant groups).  Longer term, Clear The Bench Colorado will work with legislators and others interested in reforming the systemic shortcomings of Colorado’s “merit selection & retention” system to increase transparency and accountability to the public.  For both of those endeavors, we would appreciate your continued support - via your comments (Sound Off!) and, yes, your contributions.  Freedom isn’t free -nor is it always easy to be a Citizen, not a subject.

Ultimately, though - it’s worth the effort.

One more example of how the Colorado Supreme Court has aided and abetted another unconstitutional assault on your wallet was recently highlighted in an informative article by Face The State’s Peter Blake, “One used-tire fee drives another” (the article also appeared in the Denver Daily News).  The article traces the mutation of the “used-tire fee” from it’s original purpose of collecting funds to offset the cost of recycling used tires to become just another slush fund for special interests:

The used-tire fee has been something of a fiasco for years. It started as a $1 fee (not payable if you took your tires home) in 1993 but even at the beginning, the proceeds were used more for other recycling projects than for tire disposal. Inevitably, other interest groups with no connection to tires also horned in on the booty, even higher education.

Such transformation of a “use fee” (tied to consumption of, or access to, a particular good or service) to other purposes makes it a tax - and, since it continues to be collected (now for different purposes than the original basis for the “fee” - qualifying as a tax policy change under the Colorado Constitution’s Article X, Section 20) an unconstitutional taking and an assault on your wallet.

First, the state recycling fee is no longer tied to your surrendering your old tires. Thanks to a bill passed in 2009, the $1.50 is now charged on each new tire you buy. You have to pay even if you take your old tires home and hang them in the backyard to swing on or throw footballs through. That would seem to make it not a fee at all but an increase in the sales tax-an unconstitutional one, since it wasn’t approved by the voters. But it’s never been challenged because everybody knows the Colorado Supreme Court, which hates TABOR and doesn’t care how the legislature raises money, would reject the argument.

The Colorado legislature - aided and abetted by the Colorado Supreme Court - has been operating outside the law.  The Colorado Constitution enshrines the right of the citizenry to have a say in how much of their hard-earned money can be taken from them; we have the right to vote on tax increases, by whatever name (and yes, that includes taxes masquerading as “fees”).  However creatively defined - if it looks like a tax, and quacks like a tax - it’s a tax, and you have the right to have your say at the ballot box before any new tax or tax increase goes into effect.

The fight to reform Colorado’s corrupt legal/judicial complex continues.  Clear The Bench Colorado is working to hold the consortium of legal-establishment special-interest groups who attempted (and may have succeeded in) buying the election for their buddies on the bench accountable for violations of Colorado campaign finance law.  Longer term, Clear The Bench Colorado will work with legislators and others interested in reforming the systemic shortcomings of Colorado’s “merit selection & retention” system to increase transparency and accountability to the public.  For both of those endeavors, we would appreciate your continued support - via your comments (Sound Off!) and, yes, your contributions.  Freedom isn’t free -nor is it always easy to be a Citizen, not a subject.

Ultimately, though - it’s worth the effort.