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Tag: First amendment

I won’t surrender my speech rights: Why I’m challenging Colorado’s gender identity mandates
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Fair For All, Approved, Commentary, State

I won’t surrender my speech rights: Why I’m challenging Colorado’s gender identity mandates

By Laureen Boll | Commentary, Fair For All As Colorado expands protections for gender identity, concerns about free speech, privacy, and compelled expression grow. I consider myself a law-abiding person. I’ve never seen a jail cell, I’ve never been sued. I’ve gotten one speeding ticket (I was driving to the airport and was concerned I would miss my flight) and two parking tickets (both times were unintentional). I begrudgingly pay my taxes — on time and always respect the rights of others. So why am I, of all people, formally notifying my employer that I won’t comply with their policy on “respectful treatment” in the workplace? Because it demands that I use names and pronouns to affirm a gender identity I do not believe exists. My refusal isn’t about disrespect. It’s about...
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Polis Signs New Law Allowing Lawsuits Against Licensed Counselors Despite Free Speech Concerns
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Colorado Politics, Approved, State

Polis Signs New Law Allowing Lawsuits Against Licensed Counselors Despite Free Speech Concerns

By Marissa Ventrelli | Colorado Politics Gov. Jared Polis on Monday signed a bill enabling individuals who underwent “conversion therapy” to seek damages from practitioners, calling it harmful and ineffective as he also moved to prohibit state funding for it. Conversion therapy refers to practices that attempt to counsel people on their choices of sexual orientation or gender identity. Critics argue that these efforts are ineffective and can cause harm, while supporters contend that decisions about participating in such practices should be left to families. House Bill 1322 — sponsored by Reps. Alex Valdez, D‑Denver, and Karen McCormick, D‑Hygiene, along with Sens. Lisa Cutter, D‑Evergreen, and Kyle Mullica, D‑Thornton — would allow individuals to bring civil claim...
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Colorado Venture Capital Firm Sues California Over Founder Race And Gender Reporting Law
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TownHall.com, Approved, National

Colorado Venture Capital Firm Sues California Over Founder Race And Gender Reporting Law

By: Scott McClallen | Townhall.com A Colorado-based venture capital firm filed a lawsuit today challenging a California law that forces venture capital funds to disclose the race, ethnicity, gender identity, and sexual orientation of the company founders in which they invest and report that data to the state.  The lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court of the Eastern District of California targets Khalil Mohseni, the Commissioner of the California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation. READ THE FULL ARTICLE AT TOWNHALL
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Judge keeps Colorado’s GOP primary open to unaffiliated voters
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Approved, DENVER7, State

Judge keeps Colorado’s GOP primary open to unaffiliated voters

By April Schildmeyer | Denver7 DENVER — A judge rejected three Republican primary candidates' request to block unaffiliated voters from participating in the upcoming party primary election. Former State House Rep. Ron Hanks, State Rep. Scott Bottoms and David Willson, a candidate for attorney general, filed the suit, claiming that allowing non-party voters to participate dilutes the votes of registered Republicans and violated the party's First Amendment rights. In 2016, Colorado voters approved Proposition 108, which opened primaries to unaffiliated voters. Judge Jon J. Olafson found the plaintiffs waited too long to file their lawsuit, noting that ballots had already been mailed to overseas military voters. County clerks must mail ballots to military and overseas voters by...
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Polis commutes Tina Peters sentence before resentencing begins
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Rocky Mountain Voice, State, Top Stories

Polis commutes Tina Peters sentence before resentencing begins

By Jen Schumann | Rocky Mountain Voice Two weeks ago, the judge who first sent Tina Peters to prison called her resentencing “inevitable.” Friday afternoon, Gov. Jared Polis stopped it before it could happen. In an executive order issued May 15, Polis commuted Peters’ sentence to 4 years and 4.5 months and ordered her released on parole effective June 1. The Colorado Parole Board will determine the terms of her release. Peters had served 591 days of the nearly nine-year sentence imposed in October 2024 after a Mesa County jury convicted her on seven election-related counts. The Colorado Court of Appeals vacated that sentence April 2, ruling the trial court improperly considered Peters’ protected speech regarding election fraud claims during sentencing while still upholding ...
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Citizenship requires more than showing up angry
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Undercurrent, Approved, Commentary, National

Citizenship requires more than showing up angry

By Michael Hancock | Commentary, Undercurrent Substack There is a strange contradiction in American life. We have never had more access to political information, yet we seem to understand government less. We have never had more ways to speak, yet we seem less capable of persuasion. We invoke rights constantly, yet we speak less often of duties. We demand accountability from every institution except, perhaps, ourselves. This is the condition of modern citizenship: loud, aggrieved, suspicious, emotional — and often poorly formed. The usual diagnosis is apathy. Americans do not vote enough. They do not attend local meetings. They cannot name their representatives. They do not understand the difference between a city council and a county commission, a school board and a state legislat...
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Judge Barrett denies Tina Peters bond, calls future appeals “frivolous”
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Rocky Mountain Voice, State, Top Stories

Judge Barrett denies Tina Peters bond, calls future appeals “frivolous”

By Jen Schumann | Rocky Mountain Voice Tina Peters will not be released from custody. Judge Matthew Barrett denied her renewed motion for bond pending appeal Tuesday morning—two days after refusing to step aside from her case. The nine-page order keeps Peters in prison while her legal team prepares to take the bond question to the Colorado Court of Appeals, the same panel that threw out her sentence earlier this month. Barrett did not hold a hearing. He found he could not conclude Peters is unlikely to flee, called her future appeals "frivolous" and said they would be pursued "for the purpose of delay." "Finality is critical to the resolution of the judicial process," Barrett wrote, "and it would be contrary to the law to ignore the reality that Defendant would use all mean...
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The golden rule of government: Who controls the funding shapes Colorado education policy
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Christian Home Educators of Colorado, Approved, Commentary, State

The golden rule of government: Who controls the funding shapes Colorado education policy

By Colleen Enos | Commentary, Christian Home Educators of Colorado We have all heard the Golden Rule, based on Matthew 7:12, which commands that we treat others the way we would like to be treated. But have you heard of the Golden Rule of Money? This rule says that “He who has the gold makes the rules.” It is a truth based on ownership of resources, which we should be very familiar with here in Colorado. The part-time homeschool enrichment public funding conversations happening under the golden dome in Denver are an incredibly clear example of this golden rule. The Joint Budget Committee (JBC) has asked for a bill* to be drafted that addresses Boards of Cooperative Educational Services (BOCES) operating programs outside their member districts, defines “instructional time,” and clarif...
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Colorado Case Tests Limits Of Religious Freedom In Publicly Funded Programs
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Complete Colorado, Approved, Commentary, State

Colorado Case Tests Limits Of Religious Freedom In Publicly Funded Programs

By Ari Armstrong | Commentary, Complete Colorado The Supreme Court has agreed to hear the case of a Colorado Catholic preschool that wishes to get state funding but not follow all antidiscrimination laws pertaining to gay and transgender students and possibly staff. I suspect that constitutional law professor Josh Blackman is right to predict the Court’s view, “This will likely be yet another repudiation of Colorado’s hostility to religious liberty.” Yet I wish Blackman and other conservatives would more fully think through the implications of the case for freedom of conscience. Remember who’s paying the bill The basic argument for not excluding the Catholic preschool is that excluding it infringes the school’s religious liberty. Religious prescho...
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