The Denver Gazette: A much-needed overhaul of the procedures for investigating and disciplining Colorado’s judges is underway at the State Capitol. Thanks in part to extensive Gazette coverage exposing the system’s failings, the Legislature advanced key reforms last week enhancing accountability for a judiciary that has lacked adequate oversight.

A Senate committee approved three bills revising various aspects of the judicial discipline process — one of which would require statewide voter approval. All of the proposals follow allegations about judicial misconduct that went unpunished or were handled too leniently. Those allegations surfaced in 2021 in news accounts and prompted hearings by a special legislative committee.

The alleged incidents of judicial misconduct were at the core of threats by a former high-ranking Judicial Department official who had faced firing over financial irregularities. She threatened to make the allegations public in a sex-discrimination lawsuit — and allegedly received a multimillion-dollar consulting contract that later was canceled after it went public.

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