Summit Daily: We all found out about the guy who displayed the Confederate flag in the July Fourth parade because the Town of Frisco expedited the Open Records Request.

For the record, the Colorado Open Records Act “requires that most public records be available to the public.” Such requests also are called Freedom of Information requests. But Coloradans don’t have a law protecting our right to know what our courts are doing. Usually, we count on the press to represent our interests in such cases, which fall under the First Amendment.

In one egregious case, there was definitely some wheeling and dealing going on to secure testimony in a capital murder case. Steve Zansberg represented The Colorado Independent and appealed the First Amendment case to the U.S. Supreme Court. It declined to hear the case. That decision left us with no real First Amendment rights when it comes to Colorado criminal cases.

Visit Summit Daily for more.