Rocky Mountain Voice

Menu

Tag: Judges

Colorado’s crime problem is bigger than the laws on the books
No Comments
Colorado Accountability Project, Approved, Commentary, State

Colorado’s crime problem is bigger than the laws on the books

By Cory Gaines | Commentary, Colorado Accountability Project Colorado’s crime problem isn’t just due to our laws As I've written before, our troubles with crime involve more than just the laws on the books.There are a few steps in the criminal justice process where someone has discretion. Discretion means the ability to be too hard, or too soft.District Attorneys decide on whether to charge and what charges to bring. Judges decide on bail, and the trial judge passes sentence.Each step a chance to be too harsh or too easy.The Complete Colorado article at bottom details a new effort by some lawmakers and talk radio host Jeff Hunt. Their website is linked below the story for convenience.I'll leave it to you to read either, but in brief, their effort is intended to bring publ...
Read More
New Colorado Nonprofit Targets Judges and DAs Accused of Being Soft on Crime
No Comments
Complete Colorado, Approved, State

New Colorado Nonprofit Targets Judges and DAs Accused of Being Soft on Crime

By Sherrie Peif | Complete Colorado DENVER — Two elected officials representing a hefty swath of the Front Range are teaming up with a Colorado radio host because they say they have had enough of rogue judges releasing violent criminals onto the streets, only to repeat offend. Their desire to change that trajectory led them to form a new non-profit educational group aimed at shining a light on those they believe need to move on from the bench. Conservative talk show host Jeff Hunt, State Rep. Dan Woog (R-Frederick), and 4th Congressional District CU Regent Frank McNulty (R-Highlands Ranch), have joined forces to form Law and Order Action, which they say is “dedicated to holding pro-crime judges, district attorneys and lawmakers accountable.” Woog’s legislat...
Read More
Gregory: Colorado’s highest court has lost credibility
No Comments
Approved, Colorado Politics, State

Gregory: Colorado’s highest court has lost credibility

By  Christopher Gregory | Colorado Politics, Commentary Colorado is haunted by the ghosts of Watergate. Through his preemptive pardon of Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford blunted the rule of law by preventing our country from ever directly addressing the wrongfulness of Nixon's conduct and having public discourse as to what accountability was appropriate. The evolution of Colorado's judicial scandal has been very similar to the chronology of Watergate. In it I have found my own spiritual camaraderie with Justice Melissa Hart's grandfather, Archibald Cox. Like me, Cox was retaliated against and fired just as his investigation of Nixon discovered critical evidence. The greatest danger to the American republic is not who voters choose to represent them but rather the selective enforcement or n...
Read More
Colorado judges made campaign contributions despite rules prohibiting the practice
No Comments
Approved, denvergazette.com, State

Colorado judges made campaign contributions despite rules prohibiting the practice

By DAVID MIGOYA | Denver Gazette More than a half dozen judges in Colorado — each of them specially appointed and paid to oversee a divorce case since 2019 — has made at least one political campaign contribution while serving in that capacity despite a prohibition against the practice and an affirmation to uphold it, The Denver Gazette has found. Colorado’s Code of Judicial Conduct explicitly bars anyone serving as an appointed or private judge, as they are sometimes called, from making the contributions, the same exclusion that applies to full-time sitting judges and senior judges who fill in part-time. The private judges handle civil cases, nearly all divorces by high-end couples, away from the courthouse and the public, and their salaries and expenses are paid fo...
Read More
Gelman: Judges, stay in your lane and stay out of politics 
No Comments
Approved, Commentary, National, THE HILL

Gelman: Judges, stay in your lane and stay out of politics 

By David Gelman | The Hill , Commentary One of the best pieces of advice you can give anyone starting a venture is this: Be bold, but stay in your lane. In other words, know your role, understand what you don’t know and avoid straying into areas beyond your expertise. That’s advice certain federal district court judges would do well to heed — for the good of our republic and the health of the judiciary itself.  As the Trump administration moves forward with efforts to remove illegal immigrants, including violent Venezuelan Tren de Aragua gang members, the role of federal judges — specifically activist liberal district court judges — has come under serious scrutiny. While Democrats continue to distract their base with false narratives and manufactured crises, they conveniently igno...
Read More
Bill to add 15 judges heads to Colorado governor’s desk
No Comments
Approved, coloradopolitics.com, State

Bill to add 15 judges heads to Colorado governor’s desk

By Michael Karlik | Colorado Politics Legislation to add 15 new judgeships in trial courts across the state is headed to the governor's desk for signature, as Colorado's House of Representatives approved the bill on Thursday with no votes in opposition. Senate Bill 24 is the Judicial Department's top legislative priority, and was originally intended to add 29 new judgeships over a two-year period. Three of those would have gone to the Court of Appeals, and the remaining positions were earmarked for various trial courts. However, due to budgetary concerns, lawmakers scaled back the bill to add just 15 new seats over the next two years. "We are grateful to the bill sponsors and the General Assembly for moving this bill through the legislative process, especially ...
Read More
Colorado lawmakers funded an office to handle complaints against judges. No one set it up.
No Comments
State, The Colorado Sun

Colorado lawmakers funded an office to handle complaints against judges. No one set it up.

By Brian Eason | The Colorado Sun In the wake of an alleged blackmail and harassment scandal that roiled the state judicial branch, the Colorado legislature in 2023 created an independent office to help ensure it didn’t happen again. But two years later, the ombudsman office still doesn’t exist — and it’s not clear why. The apparent oversight came to light this week when a legislative budget staffer — looking line by line for things to cut from the state’s operating budget to close a $1.2 billion shortfall — discovered an oddity: a $400,000 budget for an agency that had no employees, hadn’t made a budget request and didn’t appear to exist anywhere but on paper. “This independent agency does not exist,” Craig Harper, the legislative budget staff director told the Joint Budg...
Read More

FD863768-0ACF-495E-9D21-2EF784DFFA6B[1]

Join us at RMV's Freedom Festival

Click Here for Tickets!

This will close in 0 seconds