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.
The Colorado Supreme Court agreed to review a 2022 appellate court ruling that lets a person involved in litigation with a government entity use the Colorado Open Records Act, rather than complying with the rules of discovery, to obtain documents relevant to the litigation.
Archuleta County and Colorado Counties Inc. have asked the Colorado Supreme Court to review a 2022 appellate court ruling that lets a person involved in litigation with a public entity use the Colorado Open Records Act to obtain documents relevant to that litigation from the public entity.
Local governments in Colorado are fighting two CORA-related court rulings they fear “will have far-reaching detrimental effects on nearly all aspects of government operations” if upheld.
A bill to stop the required publication of certain county financial information in newspapers, similar to a measure vetoed last year by then-Gov. John Hickenlooper, died quickly in the House Business Affairs and Labor Committee.
A bill to modernize Colorado’s open-records law cleared its first legislative hurdle, but lawmakers added amendments that could be broadly interpreted to allow the withholding of some records currently available for public inspection.
