Editor’s Note: Law Week Colorado edits court opinion summaries for style and, when necessary, length.
The Colorado Supreme Court granted two writs of certiorari on Nov. 25.
The first case the state’s high court granted writ for was Colorado Department of State v. Unite for Colorado. In that case, a division of the Colorado Court of Appeals concluded the department had authority to consider the organization’s ballot initiative spending in the aggregate, rather than on a proposition-by-proposition basis.
In concluding so, the appeals court reversed the district court’s decision that Unite did not have a major purpose of supporting or opposing any ballot initiative in the 2020 election.
The Colorado Supreme Court will consider whether the appeals court erred in interpreting the Colorado Constitution’s “major purpose” standard, which qualifies an organization as an “issue committee” subject to registration, reporting and disclosures, by adopting a multifactor test that permits a major purpose finding when an organization spends 10% or less of its total outlays supporting or opposing a particular ballot measure.
The second case is People in the Interest of K.W., K.W., E.W., D.W., and S.W. and Concerning K.L.W.
In an unpublished opinion, the appeals court concluded that a father did not waive his right to a jury at his second adjudicatory trial after he failed to appear at an initial adjudicatory trial, and after the initial adjudication had been set aside.
The state high court granted writ on two issues in the case: whether the appeals court correctly ruled that father regained his right to a jury trial for adjudication after he waived the statutory right by nonappearance, and whether the division erred in finding that father did not waive his statutory right to an adjudicatory jury trial after he failed to appear for the first-scheduled trial, but where the judgment from the hearing was later vacated and another hearing was scheduled.