Tag: justice melissa hart
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Colorado justices deliver favorable ruling for organizations raising open meetings violations
The Colorado Supreme Court ruled on Tuesday that organizations are entitled to the same recovery of their costs as individuals when they successfully pursue a public entity’s violation of the state’s open meetings law. The Colorado Open Meetings Law permits “any person” to challenge a violation of the law. At the same time, it grants…
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Colorado Supreme Court ends lawsuit seeking refunds for CSU campus closure
Colorado State University students may not claim their school unjustly enriched itself when it temporarily closed its physical campus during the COVID-19 pandemic and did not provide refunds, the Colorado Supreme Court ruled on Monday. On behalf of all people who paid student tuition and fees during the spring 2020 semester, Renee Alderman sued CSU…
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A tattoo, the N-word, a different crime: Colorado justices hear appeal of former death row inmate
Almost 20 years after the murders of a young couple in Aurora, the Colorado Supreme Court heard the appeal of the man convicted of orchestrating the killings and who now alleges numerous errors pervaded his trial. Arapahoe County jurors convicted Robert Keith Ray for the 2005 slayings of Javad Marshall-Fields and Vivian Wolfe. He received…
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Colorado justices weigh constitutional implications of livestreaming criminal trials
With the Sixth Amendment guaranteeing criminal defendants the right to a public trial, members of the Colorado Supreme Court grappled on Tuesday with a question that may have never arisen without a global pandemic: If a judge requires spectators to watch the trial remotely, is there a constitutional violation? In a pair of cases stemming…
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2024 closes period of turnover on Colorado’s bench | YEAR IN REVIEW
New faces, new initiatives and a new judicial discipline process were among the developments in the third branch of government this year. Although much of the public’s focus was on the battle for the White House and Congress, several stories implicating the courts will have reverberations for years to come. Here is a look at…
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‘Chutzpah’: Colorado justices raise eyebrows at Weld County’s assertion it can evade redistricting law
Members of the Colorado Supreme Court appeared incredulous on Wednesday as a lawyer for Weld County argued the jurisdiction did not need to follow the state’s redistricting law, maintained it should not have to redraw its commissioner districts for nine more years, and declined to say whether the county would even comply with a Supreme…
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Colorado Supreme Court rebuffs AG’s plea to scrap restitution ruling while remaining open to tweaks
During a marathon session of oral arguments on Tuesday, members of the Colorado Supreme Court appeared open to tweaking their landmark 2021 decision warning trial judges and prosecutors to follow the law when awarding restitution to crime victims. But the justices quickly gave the Colorado Attorney General’s Office a reality check, indicating the Supreme Court…
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Colorado Supreme Court considers whether refunds available for CSU’s pandemic campus closure
The Colorado Supreme Court considered on Wednesday whether students at Colorado State University had a viable claim for refunds after the school closed its campus temporarily during the COVID-19 pandemic while still retaining their fees. On behalf of all people who paid student tuition and fees during the spring 2020 semester, Renee Alderman sued CSU…
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‘It was my duty’: Colorado chief justice speaks out about Trump disqualification vote
Chief Justice Monica M. Márquez spoke haltingly and emotionally on Thursday night about her awareness of the risks she was taking when she joined a Colorado Supreme Court decision last December finding Donald Trump constitutionally disqualified from appearing on the state’s ballot. “I want to emphasize: I did not relish that vote at all. I cast…