The Denver Gazette: The Colorado Supreme Court recently determined the state’s private judges — retired jurists appointed to oversee civil cases that rarely get public scrutiny — can now make political contributions freely and without reserve, overruling a prohibition that had been in place for decades.

The move comes a year after a Denver Gazette investigation into the state’s lesser-known system of justice, in which appointed judges — as they are formally known — are exclusively used by Colorado’s wealthiest residents to do one thing and to do it privately: get divorced.

Additionally, the Colorado Commission on Judicial Discipline is proposing a rule that would put those judges under their jurisdiction, an omission that had been unnoticed until The Denver Gazette’s stories in March 2025.

The commission has jurisdiction over all sitting judges, retired or not — except the appointed ones.

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