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.
The Colorado Supreme Court affirmed a judicially created doctrine that lets public bodies “cure” violations of the Colorado Open Meetings Law at subsequent meetings that do not merely rubber-stamp earlier decisions.
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.
The Colorado Supreme Court will examine whether a judicially created doctrine allowing public bodies to “cure” violations of the Colorado Open Meetings Law goes against the “plain meaning” of the transparency statute and “longstanding precedent.”
The state’s second-highest court affirmed a judge’s order to disclose video surveillance footage showing three Woodland Park school board members talking with a candidate for superintendent after a public meeting in December 2022.
A judge ordered the Woodland Park School District to disclose video surveillance footage showing three school board members talking with a candidate for superintendent after a public meeting last December.
Like last year, court rulings dominate CFOIC’s 2022 list of transparency highs and lows, with perhaps the most closely watched decision coming nearly three weeks after a shooter killed five people and wounded more than a dozen others at an LGBTQ nightclub in Colorado Springs on Nov. 19.
A judge declined to hold members of the Woodland Park school board in contempt for allegedly violating his April order to list meeting agenda items “clearly, honestly and forthrightly.”
A Teller County District Court judge ordered the Woodland Park school board to comply with the Colorado Open Meetings Law “by clearly, honestly and forthrightly” listing future agenda items pertaining to a charter school’s application to the district.
