The past year brought great change to the lineup of judges on Colorado’s three appellate courts. Two new 10th Circuit judges (one based in Denver), two new Colorado Supreme Court Justices (and a new Chief Justice) and one new judge on the Colorado Court of Appeals (with several more retirements around the corner in the coming year) mean that even experienced appellate advocates will likely see some new faces looking back at them from the bench in their oral arguments this year.
Judges Eid and Carson Join the 10th Circuit
Exciting news for the Colorado legal community led to a changing of the guard at the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals and the Colorado Supreme Court in 2017. On April 27, 2017, longtime Denver-based Circuit Judge Neil Gorsuch was elevated to the position of associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court.
With Gorsuch decamped to Washington, D.C., the president called on a jurist familiar to the Colorado legal community to fill his seat: Justice Allison Eid of the Colorado Supreme Court. On Nov. 3, Justice Eid became Circuit Judge Eid as the Senate confirmed her nomination.
In addition to her service on the Supreme Court from 2006 through 2017 and her work as a law professor at the University of Colorado, Eid is no stranger to the federal judiciary, as she served as a law clerk to both a 5th Circuit judge and to Justice Clarence Thomas of the U.S. Supreme Court.
Beginning this summer, Eid’s will not be the only new face on the bench at the Byron White Courthouse. As of May 15, Judge Joel Carson joined the 10th Circuit, taking the seat vacated when Judge Paul Kelly, Jr. took senior status. Based in Roswell, New Mexico, Carson will travel to Denver regularly during the 10th Circuit’s bimonthly sittings. Judge Carson was sworn in by 10th Circuit Senior Judge Bobby Baldock, for whom he served as a law clerk. Carson also served as a magistrate judge for the U.S. District Court for the District of New Mexico.
Justices Hart and Samour Join the Colorado Supreme Court
The transformation of Justice Eid into Circuit Judge Eid left a vacancy on the Colorado Supreme Court. After review of a slate of three nominees forwarded by the Supreme Court Nominating Commission, Gov. John Hickenlooper selected Justice Melissa Hart to fill Eid’s seat on Colorado’s highest court.
Hart’s resume resembles Eid’s — after law school, she clerked for a federal appellate judge and then a Supreme Court Justice (in Hart’s case, Justice John Paul Stevens), and then, after serving as an attorney in the Department of Justice, she taught at the University of Colorado Law School from 2001 until her appointment to the Court. At CU, she served as director of the Byron R. White Center for the Study of American Constitutional Law.
Hart’s tenure as the “Junior Justice” will be brief, however, as on March 7, Chief Justice Nancy Rice announced her impending retirement from the court.
On Wednesday, Hickenlooper announced Justice Nancy Rice will be succeeded by Justice Carlos Samour, Jr. Samour is Hickenlooper’s fifth appointment to the seven-member court, and like Justices Rice, Brian Boatright and William Hood before him, he served as a district court judge before his elevation — in Samour’s case, on the Adams County bench where he presided over the trial of Aurora theater shooter James Holmes. Samour is a native of El Salvador and immigrated to the U.S. with his family at age 13, fleeing threats of violence against his father, also a judge.
Finally, Rice’s departure also means that the court needs a new Chief, and the justices have chosen Chief Justice Nathan Coats to fill that position.
Coats will preside over the Court — and serve as the administrative head of the state Judicial Branch — for the remainder of his time on the bench until his expected mandatory retirement in 2021.
Judge Tow Joins the Colorado Court of Appeals
The Colorado Court of Appeals got its newest face in February 2018, with the seating of Judge Ted Tow III. Like Samour and many other recent appointees to the Colorado appellate courts, Tow served on the district court bench (seven years in Adams County) before moving to the appellate court. A native of Kansas, Tow is also an accomplished singer, and has performed with the Colorado Symphony Chorus and in the Ethics Revues put on by the Law Club of Denver.
While Tow is the only recent addition to the Court of Appeals bench, over the next few years that court is poised for a sea change in judicial personnel. Under Article VI, Section 23(1) of the Colorado Constitution, Colorado state judges are required to retire when they reach the age of 72.
Several current judges on the Court of Appeals will reach that milestone birthday in the next few years, leading to a large impending crop of new faces on the bench.
First to retire will be Chief Judge Alan Loeb, who will turn 72 on December 27, 2018. His replacement will thus be seated early in 2019. When he retires at the end of the year, Loeb will have served on the court for more than 15 years, since 2003.
Loeb’s departure will also mean that the judges of the Court of Appeals will select a new chief judge from among their number.
The remainder of 2019 should be quiet on the judicial selection front, but 2020 will bring three major retirements, as Judge John Webb, Judge Robert Hawthorne, and Judge Daniel Taubman will all turn 72.
This will make a major loss in judicial experience on the Court of Appeals, as Hawthorne has served since 2004, Webb since 2002, and Taubman will have served, when he retires in 2020, a truly remarkable 28 years on the Court of Appeals bench.
— Kyle Brenton is of counsel at Childs McCune