Days before a landmark school-funding lawsuit goes to trial, Gov. John Hickenlooper and Attorney General John Suthers on Thursday took a pre-emptive bipartisan stand against the legal challenge, arguing that it could cost the state billions of dollars if it loses in court. (Denver Post, “Colorado governor, attorney general stand against education-funding challenge“)

When Colorado’s Democrat Governor and Republican Attorney General agree that “education funding should be left to the legislature and voters” and not decided by the courts, it might be an indication of the return of some level of fiscal sanity to state government (or a sign of the impending apocalypse).

Unfortunately, the restoration of some level of sanity to Colorado’s judicial branch (which recently earned the state the title of “judicial hellhole“) may take a bit longer.

This educational-funding lawsuit (seeking to force even higher state educational spending by court order) represents yet another abuse of the courts for the pursuit of political ends - unfortunately aided and abetted by an all-too-complicit (and highly political) majority on the Colorado Supreme Court.

Current Chief Justice Michael Bender (together with disgraced then-Chief Justice Mary Mullarkey, joined by justices Alex Martinez and Greg Hobbs) overturned two lower courts which had (correctly) dismissed the case (Lobato v. Colorado) as non-justiciable (meaning, not to be decided by the courts).

Unfortunately - thanks to the Colorado Supreme Court’s majority injecting their personal sympathies ahead of the law - this lawsuit has already cost the state tens of thousands, and if upheld will likely lead to court-ordered increases in funding (and, inevitably, taxation) - a violation of separation of powers, and yet another unconstitutional tax increase facilitated by the Colorado Supreme Court.

One not need look very far (indeed, just across the border to Kansas) to see the potential for a fiscal and budgetary train wreck of epic proportions.  Indeed, as Governor Hickenlooper correctly points out, the consequences for Colorado would be “devastating.”

The issue of educational funding is NOT one for the courts, but rather for the legislature and/or local school boards. The Lobato lawsuit is a fiscal, legal, and political disaster in the making.

Clear The Bench Colorado will, with your support, continue to promote transparency and accountability in the Colorado judiciary, informing the public to increase awareness of the substantial public policy implications of an unrestrained activism and political agendas in the courts.  We will continue to work to educate voters and provide information of relevance related to the judicial branch, and to provide useful and substantive evaluations of judicial performance.

However, we can’t do it alone -  we need 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.

Colorado’s Reapportionent Commission (charged with drawing our state legislative districts) has completed the final set of preliminary legislative district maps for Colorado, revealing the six-county (Adams, Arapahoe, Boulder, Broomfield, Denver, and Jefferson counties) Denver metro area maps (following the previous week’s marathon session combining public testimony for Regions 6 and 7 on a single day).

The commission’s most recent meeting (18 July) discussed the preliminary district maps for state House and Senate districts for Region 6 (Adams, Boulder, Broomfield, and Jefferson counties) and Region 7 (Denver and Arapahoe counties) - public testimony on districts in those regions actually occurred a week earlier, on 11 July).

(Click here to view preliminary map for Region 6 & 7 Senate districts)

(Click here to view preliminary map for Region 6 & 7 House districts)

Interestingly enough, both sets of maps (House and Senate, for Regions 6 & 7) were approved on a nearly party-line vote of 6-5, with unaffiliated commission chair Mario Carrera casting the deciding vote in each instance, once with Republicans (for the House maps) and once with the Democrats (for the Senate maps).

Click here for the full schedule of public hearings on state legislative districts.

Additional information is also available on the Reapportionment Commission website.

Additional references:

Constitutional Provisions Controlling Reapportionment/Redistricting (state government website which collates relevant constitutional language on Congressional redistricting and state legislative reapportionment)

Clear The Bench Colorado will, with your support, continue to promote transparency and accountability in the Colorado judiciary, informing the public to increase awareness of the substantial public policy implications of an unrestrained activism and political agendas in the courts.  We will continue to work to educate voters and provide information of relevance related to the judicial branch, and to provide useful and substantive evaluations of judicial performance.

However, we can’t do it alone -  we need 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.

The Denver-based Institute for the Advancement of the American Legal System (IAALS) - “a national, non-partisan organization dedicated to improving the process and culture of the civil justice system” - is hosting a National Conference on Evaluating Appellate Judges on 11-12 August on the campus of the University of Denver (Sturm Hall, 2000 E. Asbury Avenue, Denver CO 80208).

Clear The Bench Colorado Director Matt Arnold is, by special invitation, a featured panelist on the topic of “Evaluating Appellate Judges: Are we doing it right? How can we do it better?”

(Short answers: “NO”, and “view our Evaluations of Judicial Performance page for an idea”).

To the Institute’s credit, they (IAALS) extended the invitation even after being taken to task for their involvement in the “Know Your Judge” campaign which likely violated Colorado campaign finance laws in advocating against Clear The Bench Colorado’s judicial accountability efforts during the state’s 2010 judicial retention elections without ever bothering to register with the Office of Secretary of State, as required by law.  (The case is currently winding its way through the appellate process).

For more on the topic (and for “what promises to be an engaging and thought-provoking” discussion), you’ll have to attend the conference, which is open to the public (register online).

From the conference website:

This national conference will consider ways to improve existing processes for evaluating the performance of appellate judges and for informing voters about evaluation results. Chief Justice Mark Cady of the Iowa Supreme Court is the featured speaker. We invite you to join us for what promises to be an engaging and thought-provoking event.

For Colorado attorneys and judges, 9 hours of general CLE credits, including 1.2 hours of ethics, may be earned.

Click here for the conference agenda.

Topics include:

• The appellate judge: What makes a good appellate judge? Can we capture these qualities in the evaluation process?
• Evaluating appellate judges: Are we doing it right? How could we do it better?
• Retention elections, special interests, and voters: Perspectives from a justice, a journalist, and a scholar

Clear The Bench Colorado will, with your support, continue to promote transparency and accountability in the Colorado judiciary, informing the public to increase awareness of the substantial public policy implications of an unrestrained activism and political agendas in the courts.  We will continue to work to educate voters and provide information of relevance related to the judicial branch, and to provide useful and substantive evaluations of judicial performance.

However, we can’t do it alone -  we need 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.

Colorado’s Reapportionent Commission (charged with drawing our state legislative districts) has completed the first round of public testimony on legislative district boundaries (last week’s marathon session covered six metro Denver counties).  Meetings continue this week, however, with new district maps for metro Denver counties set to be introduced in open hearings, beginning at 9:30AM in the Legislative Services Building (Hearing Room A) on 200 East 14th Avenue, Denver CO 80203 (which is located just across the street to the south of the Colorado state Capitol building).  The hearing will also be broadcast over the Internet for those unable to attend in person.  (View meeting agenda here

The commission’s most recent meeting (11 July) discussed the preliminary district maps for state House and Senate districts for Region 5 (Larimer and Weld Counties - public testimony on districts in that region actually occurred two weeks earlier, on 27 June).

(Click here to view preliminary map for Region 5 Senate districts)

(Click here to view preliminary map for Region 5 House districts)

Click here for the full schedule of public hearings on state legislative districts.

Additional information is also available on the Reapportionment Commission website.

Additional references:

Constitutional Provisions Controlling Reapportionment/Redistricting (state government website which collates relevant constitutional language on Congressional redistricting and state legislative reapportionment)

Clear The Bench Colorado will, with your support, continue to promote transparency and accountability in the Colorado judiciary, informing the public to increase awareness of the substantial public policy implications of an unrestrained activism and political agendas in the courts.  We will continue to work to educate voters and provide information of relevance related to the judicial branch, and to provide useful and substantive evaluations of judicial performance.

However, we can’t do it alone -  we need 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.

Colorado’s Reapportionment Commission (charged with drawing our state legislative districts) meets in Denver today to hear public testimony on state legislative district boundaries in a final marathon round (covering six metro Denver counties) today (11 July) in Denver.

This week’s meeting will introduce new preliminary maps for Larimer & Weld County districts (public testimony on those districts took place earlier, on 27 June).  The commission is also scheduled to hear public testimony on six metro Denver county (Adams, Boulder, Broomfield, and Jefferson county districts starting at 11AM, and Arapahoe and Denver county  districts starting at 2PM) in the Legislative Services Building (Hearing Room A) on 200 East 14th Avenue, Denver CO 80203 (which is located just across the street to the south of the Colorado state Capitol building).  The hearing will also be broadcast over the Internet for those unable to attend in person.  (View meeting agenda here)

The commission’s most recent meeting (27 June) discussed the preliminary district maps for state House and Senate districts for Region 4 (central Colorado - Custer, Clear Creek, Douglas, El Paso, Fremont, Gilpin, Park, and Teller Counties - public testimony on districts in that region actually occurred a week earlier, on 20 June).

According to the Colorado Springs Gazette’s report on Monday’s meeting,

Democrats won both rounds at the reapportionment commission meeting on Monday, when their maps for the state House and Senate were approved with the help of two of the five Republican commissioners.

Although the count differed by one vote, the ultimate outcome was the same:

The Democrats’ Senate map was approved 8-3, with two Republicans in support, and the Democrats’ House map passed 7-4, with one Republican in support. The commission’s unaffiliated chairman, Mario Carrera, sided with Democrats both times.

(Click here to view preliminary map for Region 4 Senate districts)

(Click here to view preliminary map for Region 4 House districts)

Click here for the full schedule of public hearings on state legislative districts.

Additional information is also available on the Reapportionment Commission website.

Additional references:

• Constitutional Provisions Controlling Reapportionment/Redistricting (state government website which collates relevant constitutional language on Congressional redistricting and state legislative reapportionment)

Clear The Bench Colorado will, with your support, continue to promote transparency and accountability in the Colorado judiciary, informing the public to increase awareness of the substantial public policy implications of an unrestrained activism and political agendas in the courts.  We will continue to work to educate voters and provide information of relevance related to the judicial branch, and to provide useful and substantive evaluations of judicial performance.

However, we can’t do it alone -  we need 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.

As we celebrate the anniversary of our nation’s founding on this 4th of July - our Independence Day - Clear The Bench Colorado salutes the ideals and principles that make the Unites States of America the greatest nation on earth.

Since Clear The Bench Colorado Director Matt Arnold is currently serving a tour of duty out of state, on this Independence Day we reprise an article written this time last year to commemorate the anniversary of our Declaration of Independence (published in the now-defunct Constitutionalist Today monthly).

A Nation of Citizens - Not Subjects

As We The People celebrate the 235th anniversary of our Declaration of Independence this year - entering our 236^th year as a nation - it is worth reflecting on that truly groundbreaking document and the unique, truly exceptional experiment in human governance represented by our founding documents, forming the very essence and exceptional character of the United States of America.

For the first time in human history - acknowledging the historical antecedents in Greek democracy and the Roman Republic, but nonetheless a radical departure from all that had come before - a nation was founded based on the principle of individual, unalienable rights, and putting government in its proper place of being the servant, not the master:

“We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal…”

Equality not of individual skill or ability, not station (or “class”) in life, not of achievement - but equality in rights before the law - unalienable rights, meaning rights that government does not have the authority to arbitrarily take away, even if it may have the power.

That to secure these Rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just Powers from the Consent of the Governed…

Those who would argue that our rights come from government - that government comes first, and the citizenry should be content with what government gives them - are decisively rebuffed in our nation’s foundational documents, and the Spirit of America.  Government exists only to help secure our Rights - it does not grant them, our Rights are ours, pre-dating and superior to the existence of government.

Unfortunately - as did our forefathers at the time of the founding - We The People have experienced an increasing “History of repeated Injuries and Usurpations, all having in direct Object the Establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States.”

The growth of the Federal government in particular, but of state governments as well, to rule over an ever-increasing number of activities not the proper purview of government activity, directly threatens the freedoms, liberties, and yes, “unalienable Rights” of the citizens of these United States of America.

Are we, then, arrived at the need for a new Declaration of Independence against our grasping, grabbing, ever-growing Government?

As Citizens, we still maintain the Right, and the power, to bring our out-of-control government to heel.  We The People have allowed our government - through inattention and inactivity - to ignore the limits we have set for its power and authority.  Those limits are specified in another exceptional founding document - the U.S. Constitution - which lists (”enumerates“) the “just Powers” of our Federal government, just as our respective state Constitutions enumerate the powers and authority of the state governments.

Government transgressions against the Constitution (at either the Federal or state levels) are an assault on the liberties and individual rights of the citizens.  As citizens, we must not - we cannot - tolerate such assaults, or we shall inevitably be deprived of our status as citizens, and instead become subjects - the ruled, not the rulers.

Stand as a Citizen this year (and every year) - refuse to become a subject.  Restore constitutional limits to the powers of government, and hold government officials at all levels, in all three branches - accountable to the law.  Remember, the Constitution is our law, limiting government power over us; don’t let it be taken from you, along with your rights.

In Colorado, we have a unique opportunity every two years to hold not just our elected officials (our legislators and executive-branch officeholders) accountable, but the appointed officials in our judiciary as well - those who should be the guardians of our constitutional rights, but many of whom instead have acted repeatedly to weaken and undermine our constitutional rights.

Our form of government - a constitutionally limited “Republic, if you can keep it” - is worthy of our best efforts in its defense.

This unique experiment in human governance, that has lasted more than two centuries - this

“government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not [MUST NOT!] perish from the earth.”

Clear The Bench Colorado will, with your support, continue to promote transparency and accountability in the Colorado judiciary, informing the public to increase awareness of the substantial public policy implications of an unrestrained activism and political agendas in the courts.  We will continue to work to educate voters and provide information of relevance related to the judicial branch, and to provide useful and substantive evaluations of judicial performance.

However, we can’t do it alone -  we need 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.