Coloradans fought for press freedom and freedom of information in 2025 in settings as small as the Eastern Plains town of Bennett and as big as the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C.
Colorado’s Law Enforcement Integrity Act does not permit agencies to charge requesters hundreds or thousands of dollars for body-worn camera footage showing possible misconduct by police officers, three briefs submitted to the Colorado of Appeals argue.
People who sue state and local government entities are still entitled to get public records from those entities by using the Colorado Open Records Act, a majority of the Colorado Supreme Court ruled.
Public bodies must not be permitted to “cure” infringements of the Colorado Open Meetings Law without being held accountable to the citizens who file lawsuits to enforce compliance, the Colorado Freedom of Information Coalition argues in a brief submitted to the state’s highest court.
A Pagosa Springs attorney who has filed nearly 100 open-government lawsuits in the past several years has standing to sue the Elizabeth school board for alleged open meetings law violations even though he lives 300 miles away, the Colorado Court of Appeals ruled.
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.
