Montezuma County Court Judge Ian MacLaren pushed back against misconduct allegations this week and maintained he didn't lie to disciplinary officials. Yet, his response to the discipline complaint contained questionable representations of the facts: www.coloradopolitics.com/2025/10/02/m...

A Weld County judge correctly dismissed a lawsuit over library services, but the Court of Appeals found he went aggro on the plaintiffs because he didn't understand the arguments and misperceived them as frivolous: www.coloradopolitics.com/2025/10/01/a...

The 10th Circuit addressed what happens if a noncitizen is eligible to stay in the country due to hardship on their child, but the child is near the age cutoff. Even if the child was under 21 during the proceedings, the date of the decision is what matters: www.coloradopolitics.com/2025/10/01/1...

In an unusual move, the prosecution and defense agreed a man shouldn't stand convicted of a more serious federal probation violation. While holding onto drugs beyond the prescription was a minor violation, it wasn't punishable as a crime as a judge believed: www.coloradopolitics.com/2025/10/01/1...

“ABC7 spoke to Pertissue Fisher, a woman who lives in the building. She said ICE agents took everyone in the building, including her, and asked questions later….’They was bringing the kids down, too, had them zip tied to each other.’” It can’t happen here, you say. But it is happening.

A federal judge ended Lisa Calderón's lawsuit in favor of Denver. The former mayoral candidate alleged the city terminated her contract to run a criminal justice program because she criticized the city administration. The judge didn't see a connection: www.coloradopolitics.com/2025/09/30/f...

An ICE officer pushed a photojournalist to the ground today at immigration court at 26 Federal Plaza in NYC. The photojournalist couldn't get up afterwards, and EMS was called.

Federal immigration officers approached a car with their weapons drawn, with a child inside, during an ICE arrest in Alamosa.

The 10th Circuit concluded Colorado's LGBTQ non-discrimination requirement for its publicly funded preschool program doesn't violate the First Amendment. When a school takes money from the state, "its doors must be open to all," wrote Judge Rich Federico: www.coloradopolitics.com/2025/09/30/a...

By 5-2, the Colorado Supreme Court said the state's pre-2025 "three strikes" law -- which specifically omitted juries from reviewing prior convictions -- allowed juries to review prior convictions. The chief justice dissented for the *fifth* time this month: www.coloradopolitics.com/2025/09/29/c...

A formerly incarcerated man challenged Colorado's prison policy that prohibits resources for historically frivolous claims, like sovereign citizen stuff. A magistrate judge suggested the free speech challenge proceed, but a district judge dismissed the suit: www.coloradopolitics.com/2025/09/29/f...

I'm skimming, but this paragraph stood out:

I have lived and worked in and around Chicago for 27 years and I have been assaulted less often than Sen Paul has been in his own back yard.

"[J]ournalists should not be arrested [or deported] for exercising their constitutional rights."

Judge Tim Schutz is urging Colorado's Supreme Court to endorse one of the 3 definitions of reasonable doubt that the Court of Appeals has approved. He suggested it's unseemly for judges to choose between the one prosecutors prefer v. what the defense prefers: www.coloradopolitics.com/2025/09/26/a...

For some reason, a defendant wasn't present at the hearing where he was ordered to pay crime victim restitution. By 2-1, Colorado's Court of Appeals agreed it was a violation of his constitutional rights, but his absence didn't matter: www.coloradopolitics.com/2025/09/26/b...

A Wheat Ridge officer, relying on a database, immediately arrested the driver of a vehicle reported stolen. He wasn't charged with vehicle theft, but with possessing stolen financial/ID cards. The Court of Appeals found there wasn't probable cause to arrest: www.coloradopolitics.com/2025/09/26/a...

In which a top US Border Patrol official, incredibly, tells my tall and Anglo colleague @chipmitchell1.bsky.social that he's not the type they're looking for as they go about downtown Chicago arresting people based on "how they look" chicago.suntimes.com/immigration/...

Chief Justice Monica Márquez spoke yesterday about the threats and invasions of privacy the Colorado Supreme Court and their families endured after finding Trump constitutionally disqualified from the ballot. Doxing, swatting, and porn were some examples: www.coloradopolitics.com/2025/09/26/c...

IMPORTANT UPDATE: Thank you to all who called or emailed to complain. www.cbsnews.com/news/ice-off...

A conservative podcaster asked for additional time to respond about the $53,000 he owes for his contempt-of-court proceedings. He said he wasn't getting the court's orders. A federal judge said no, that seems unlikely because we've sent them in multiple ways: www.coloradopolitics.com/2025/09/24/f...

A Colorado prison guard allegedly disclosed in front of an entire cell block that a prisoner "snitched" on someone else by filing a sexual harassment complaint. A federal judge said the man can sue the guard for retaliation and for putting him in danger: www.coloradopolitics.com/2025/09/24/f...

Three years after the Colorado Supreme Court laid out a procedure for how a convicted defendant can get his seized property back, he's still trying to retrieve certain items that allegedly have nothing to do with his crime or the victim: www.coloradopolitics.com/2025/09/24/a...

Colorado’s Aurora detention center housed 1,180 people as of this data’s release. Of those, 831 (70%) are listed as “non-criminal.” Data here: www.ice.gov/detain/deten...

The modern-day equivalent of "my dog ate my homework?" Federal judge doesn't buy the "spam folder" excuse in this #copolitics case. via @michaelkarlik.bsky.social

Colorado's Court of Appeals agreed a trial judge was wrong to instruct jurors on self-defense. However, the panel criticized the DA for an appeal that 1) wouldn't change anything, 2) wouldn't set a precedent and 3) raised an issue that probably didn't matter: www.coloradopolitics.com/2025/09/23/a...

Based on the oral arguments, the Colorado Supreme Court is unlikely to let the state categorically withhold the number of child abuse reports arising from group home and treatment facilities, as the Department of Human Services claimed it could: www.coloradopolitics.com/2025/09/23/c...

Colorado's Supreme Court seems unlikely to find a woman's 29-year prison sentence unconstitutional after she killed another driver while drunk. But the justices were receptive to making a defendant-friendly change to the test for evaluating constitutionality: www.coloradopolitics.com/2025/09/23/c...

Lawyers Report Disappearance of Hundreds of Alligator Alcatraz Detainees From ICE Database: 'It's a Black Hole' The Miami Herald reported that by late August about 800 detainees no longer appeared in ICE's database, while another 450 were listed with no location

A federal judge is questioning whether two physicians have standing to challenge the residency requirement of Colorado's assisted suicide law after the third plaintiff -- a terminally ill out-of-state resident -- recently died: www.coloradopolitics.com/2025/09/22/f...

A jury determined a defendant murdered the victim, but he had not used a gun -- which was impossible. Jurors apparently were persuaded by the prosecutor to convict him (improperly) as an accomplice. The Colorado Supreme Court is now weighing reversal: www.coloradopolitics.com/2025/09/22/c...

SCOTUSblog had long called the shadow docket by its neutral term, the “Emergency Docket,” but the site has just switched to Kavanaugh’s new preferred term, “Interim Docket.” Dispatch Media’s helping Brett make fetch happen.

A magistrate judge ordered a Colorado bank robbery defendant detained pending trial. A district judge, acknowledging it was a close call, nonetheless decided home detention was appropriate under the circumstances: www.coloradopolitics.com/2025/09/19/f...

A federal judge rejected Boulder's lawsuit against the FAA, which sought a declaration that the city doesn't need the feds' permission to close its municipal airport after 2040. The judge said, in essence, 15 years in the future is too distant to sue: www.coloradopolitics.com/2025/09/19/f...

Another thing about Lindsey Halligan is that she has never prosecuted a case

Judge Charlotte Sweeney concluded the government is wrong to believe noncitizens who aren't "seeking admission" to the country are subject to mandatory detention. There's a separate, proposed class action lawsuit in Colorado on this exact issue: www.coloradopolitics.com/2025/09/19/t...

A federal judge found Vail Health did not engage in unlawful monopolistic practices in the physical therapy market, although that was partly because the plaintiffs' lawyers made "sloppy" arguments to the court: www.coloradopolitics.com/2025/09/18/f...

A federal judge narrowed an industry challenge to Denver's restrictions on natural gas appliances, finding some of the challenged regulations were not even on the books yet: www.coloradopolitics.com/2025/09/19/f...

The Colorado Supreme Court will decide if a man injured in a 2020 snowboarding accident agreed to release all of his claims because he bought another ski pass in 2022 -- after he filed suit -- whose terms and conditions forfeited any claims he may have had: www.coloradopolitics.com/2025/09/18/c...

The sirens can’t be any redder or blare any louder

The chief justice dissented in an open meetings law ruling announced earlier this week: coloradofoic.org/colorado-sup...

Judge Rich Federico talked to me about the 10th Circuit's recent closed-door conference in Santa Fe. Neil Gorsuch (the circuit justice) didn't attend, but the judges heard a security update & talked about civic outreach. Very little about the current moment: www.coloradopolitics.com/2025/09/18/1...

Colorado Chief Justice Monica Márquez has dissented in four of the eight new opinions released in the early weeks of the Supreme Court's current term. What's up? www.coloradopolitics.com/2025/09/18/w...

A Fremont County jail deputy completed a deferred sentence for his sexual harassment of female detainees. Therefore, his criminal case was dismissed. The Court of Appeals concluded the county must now pay the victims' damages under Colo.'s police reform law: www.coloradopolitics.com/2025/09/17/a...

Some killings you're allowed to joke about.

Even though Fort Collins's former "DUI officer" misunderstood investigative techniques and wrongly arrested people who weren't intoxicated, a federal judge concluded he had probable cause to arrest one particular non-intoxicated motorist: www.coloradopolitics.com/2025/09/16/f...

The Colorado Supreme Court modified its June opinion in the case of former death row inmate Robert Ray. The new passages convey that, any way you look at it, his now-life without parole sentence doesn't violate the Eighth Amendment: www.coloradopolitics.com/2025/09/16/c...

Last week, Colorado Supreme Court Justice Will Hood spoke about the obligation attorneys and judges have to report their peers for violating their professional responsibilities -- and how intervention over punishment is sometimes the answer: www.coloradopolitics.com/2025/09/16/i...

I have a feeling the problem with these people lies somewhere other than their law school educations, but 🤷🏻‍♂️

Colorado's minimum wage law is silent on the subject, but the state Supreme Court decided plaintiffs have two or three years to sue their employers for violations, and not six years like the Court of Appeals believed: www.coloradopolitics.com/2025/09/15/c...