Clear The Bench Colorado Director Matt Arnold kicks off the Election 2010 cycle by joining a veritable who’s who of Colorado political figures  between 9:30AM and 1PM Saturday Jan. 16th at Koelbel Library in Centennial (5955 South Holly Street) for the Election 2010 Kickoff event.

Join Matt and other prominent politicos at Saturday morning’s meeting to learn more about the Mullarkey Court’s repeated assaults on the Colorado Constitution, the resulting impact to your wallet, the degradation or outright elimination of YOUR constitutional rights, and what you can do about it.

Learn more about how - and why -  you can and should exercise YOUR right to vote “NO” on retaining the four unjust justices of the Mullarkey Majority (Justices Michael Bender, Alex Martinez, Nancy Rice, and Chief Justice Mary Mullarkey) who need YOUR approval to keep taking away your constitutional rights: your right to vote on tax increases, your right to defend your homes and business from seizure by rapacious governments, and your right to enjoy the benefits of the rule of law, not rule by activist, agenda-driven Colorado Supreme Court “justices.”  Support Clear The Bench Colorado with your comments (Sound Off!), your contributions, and your “NO” vote on retaining unjust justices in 2010!

Clear The Bench Colorado Director Matt Arnold starts off the new year by joining former Fort Collins Mayor Ray Martinez on his “Saturday’s Opinion” radio show between noon and 2PM Saturday Jan. 2nd (tune in to 1310 AM KFKA or listen in live via streaming online) to discuss the Colorado Supreme Court Mullarkey Majority’s repeated assaults on the constitutional rights of Colorado citizens, the resulting impact to your wallet, and what you can do about it.  Call in to the show after the opening segment with your questions or comments at 970-353-1310 or 877-353-1310.

Tune in (and call in) to learn more about why you should exercise YOUR right to vote “NO” on retaining the four unjust justices of the Mullarkey Majority (Justices Michael Bender, Alex Martinez, Nancy Rice, and Chief Justice Mary Mullarkey) who need YOUR approval to continue taking away your rights: your right to vote on tax increases, your right to defend your homes and business from seizure by rapacious governments, and your right to enjoy the benefits of the rule of law, not rule by activist, agenda-driven “justices.”  Support Clear The Bench Colorado with your voice (Sound Off!), your contributions, and your “NO” vote on retaining these unjust justices in November 2010!

Clear The Bench Colorado Director Matt Arnold joins Jimmy Sengenberger on his “Seng Center” radio show Thursday at 6PM (KRCX 93.9 FM or online at regis.edu/krcx) to discuss the Mullarkey Court’s repeated assaults on the constitutional rights of Colorado citizens.

If you missed the broadcast, check out the podcasted show online - shows are posted every weekend at www.SengCenter.com. 

Tune in to learn more about why you should exercise YOUR right to vote “NO” on retaining the four unjust justices of the Mullarkey Majority (Justices Michael Bender, Alex Martinez, Nancy Rice, and Chief Justice Mary Mullarkey) who need YOUR approval to continue taking away your rights: your right to vote on tax increases, your right to defend your homes and business from seizure by rapacious governments, and your right to enjoy the benefits of the rule of law, not rule by activist, agenda-driven “justices.”  Support Clear The Bench Colorado with your voice (Sound Off!), your contributions, and your “NO” vote on retaining unjust justices in 2010!

Friday’s vote by the CSU System Board to institute a “weapons control policy” on campus - essentially, implementing a ban on legal concealed carry of firearms by licensed permit-holders - joins a similar ban by the University of Colorado Board of Regents as policies virtually certain to be legally challenged and ultimately decided by the Colorado Supreme Court.

The CU Regents ban on responsible and licensed concealed-carry has already been challenged by students from different CU campuses; although a lower court judge dismissed the case on a technicality, it is now winding its way through the appeals process, and will almost certainly end up before the Colorado Supreme Court for a final decision.

The CSU ban stands on even shakier legal grounds than the CU ban - which has survived so far solely on the basis of the University of Colorado’s unique charter in which the General Assembly granted its ELECTED Board of Regents autonomous authority over all operations of CU’s campuses.  (CSU does NOT enjoy a similar “special” status).  Any legal challenge to the CSU ban has strong legal merit based on the clear letter and intent of the statute authorizing statewide standards and universal application for concealed-carry permits:

18-12-214. Authority granted by permit - carrying restrictions.

  (1) (a) A permit to carry a concealed handgun authorizes the permittee to carry a concealed handgun in all areas of the state, except as specifically limited in this section. …  A local government does not have authority to adopt or enforce an ordinance or resolution that would conflict with any provision of this part. (emphasis added)

The ONLY hope for this clearly unconstitutional ban to withstand the inevitable legal challenge - and the ongoing legal challenge to the CU ban - is if the Colorado Supreme Court refuses to follow the law (certainly not impossible, given the predilections of the Mullarkey Majority which dominates the 7-member court).

Fortunately, friends of liberty and the constitutional right to keep and bear arms can “head ‘em off at the pass” in November 2010 by voting to REMOVE FOUR of the most anti-constitutional justices on the Colorado Supreme Court (Justices Michael Bender, Alex Martinez, Nancy Rice, and Chief Justice Mary Mullarkey) BEFORE the challenge comes to a final resolution before the court.

Freedom isn’t Free - Defend YOUR Constitution, and exercise YOUR right to vote “NO” on retaining the four unjust justices of the Mullarkey Majority (Justices Michael Bender, Alex Martinez, Nancy Rice, and Chief Justice Mary Mullarkey) who need YOUR approval to continue taking away your constitutional rights: your right to vote on tax increases, your right to defend your homes and business from seizure by rapacious governments, and your right to enjoy the benefits of the rule of law, not rule by activist, agenda-driven “justices.”  Support Clear The Bench Colorado with your comments (Sound Off!), your contributions, and your “NO” vote on retaining these unjust justices in 2010!

Well, that didn’t take long.

In Monday’s article predicting that new “fees“, not new taxes, would be the preferred approach of the Governor and the Colorado Legislature to address our state’s “fiscal crisis” (in reality more of a spending issue, not a revenue shortfall), I’d thought (paraphrasing Will Rogers) that my wallet was safe until the Legislature was back in session.  Although that’s still technically true (since the latest proposed “fee” increases still require legislative approval before going into effect), less than a day passed between my prediction and the first new “fee” proposal by Governor Ritter.

Ritter’s Colorado Gun Tax is the latest scheme to target a maligned minority group (gun-owners) to bear the burden of additional charges (pardon, “fees“) in order to exercise a constitutional right.  Under Ritter’s proposed budget plan, the state would levy “a fee increase for background checks on gun sales” as well as increasing the fee for Concealed-Carry Weapons (CCW) permits.

This follows on the heels of the 2009 Legislative Session’s Tobacco Tax increase, HB1342  (technically, an elimination of the long-standing Colorado state tax exemption for tobacco products).

Does anyone think that our governor and legislators will stop with targeting gun-owners and smokers?  Not by a long shot (pardon the pun); they’re just getting warmed up:

He [Governor Ritter] talked vaguely about “options other than budget reductions” for next year’s budget. Some Democratic leaders want to eliminate some of the nearly $2 billion in tax credits, incentives and exemptions in state law.

The “nearly $2 billion in tax credits, incentives, and exemptions in state law”- which includes exemptions on taxing groceries, internet access, gasoline, fuel for residential heat, etc.  (view the complete list) - was previously shielded from legislative raids on your wallet by TABOR, until the Mullarkey Court declared “open season” on these credits as part of the “Mill Levy Tax Freeze” ruling.

Ritter and the Colorado Legislature were similarly prohibited from bypassing TABOR - and TABOR’s requirement for a vote of the people on tax increases - by raising taxes disguised as “fees” until the Mullarkey Court’s “November Surprise” ruling in the Barber v. Ritter case.

The Mullarkey Majority has been aiding and abetting the sticky fingers of state government in YOUR wallet.  It’s high time to hold them accountable - vote “NO” on retaining these unjust justices in 2010.

Let’s Clear The Bench, Colorado!