Denying a Pagosa Springs lawyer legal standing to sue a school district because he doesn’t live within its boundaries “would drastically and substantively alter the protections” of the Colorado Open Meetings Law, not only for him, “but for all persons,” the Colorado Freedom of Information Coalition and the American Civil Liberties Union of Colorado say in a court filing.
The state’s highest court should reaffirm that people who sue state and local government entities are still entitled to obtain public records from those entities by using the Colorado Open Records Act, the ACLU of Colorado and the Colorado Freedom of Information Coalition say in a new court filing.
A Denver attorney’s comments to the press about a federal class-action lawsuit were protected by the litigation privilege, which immunizes a lawyer who makes allegedly defamatory statements related to a civil court case, the Colorado Supreme Court decided, reversing a 2021 ruling by the Court of Appeals.
Despite a looming inflationary increase in fees, state lawmakers in the 2023 legislative session never addressed the often-high cost of obtaining public records in Colorado but did vote to eliminate some nagging obstacles for users of the Colorado Open Records Act.
State and local elected officials could block anyone from their private social media accounts for bullying, harassment, intimidation or “any reason” under a bill endorsed by Colorado lawmakers.
A 2021 Colorado Court of Appeals opinion on what lawyers can tell the press about pending class-action lawsuits will chill “legitimate speech that allows the media to keep the public informed on matters of significant public concern,” the Colorado Freedom of Information Coalition and news associations argue in a brief filed recently with the Colorado Supreme Court.
A bill that restricts governments’ use of nondisclosure agreements to silence public employees in Colorado earned bipartisan support in a Senate committee.
Homeowners’ associations could not ban signs and flags based on their content or message under a bill making its way through the Colorado General Assembly.
At the bill sponsor’s request, a Colorado House committee killed a measure that would have significantly weakened the 2019 state law that opened records on police internal affairs investigations.
It’s unlikely we would have this important new law without research conducted by University of Denver Sturm College of Law professor Margaret Kwoka and DU law students Bridget DuPey and Christopher McMichael, each of whom received the Colorado Society of Professional Journalists’ First Amendment Award.
