Citizens in Charge

Federal District Court Judge Philip Brimmer has put another nail in the coffin of the Colorado General Assembly’s attempt to silence the state’s voters. Back in June the judge issued a preliminary injunction against part of HB 1326 - which passed overwhelmingly in 2009 - that restricted how ballot initiative campaigns could pay their workers. Last week he followed with another order saying Colorado couldn’t prevent campaigns from using petition circulators from other states. Both restrictions have been found to violate the First Amendment in several other states, and Judge Brimmer stated that these two parts of the bill would likely be found unconstitutional as well.

Residency requirements - or the banning of people from other states collecting petition signatures - have been struck down in at least eight different states over the last decade. Courts have found that restricting who can help circulate a petition infringes on the free speech rights of those trying to qualify the petition for the ballot. They have also found, time and again, that people from one state are no more or less likely to commit crimes than people from another.

Despite all this, Secretaries of State and other officials continue to enforce these draconian restrictions, legislatures like Colorado’s continue to pass them, and legislators in other states - like voter-hating Mike Parson in Missouri - continue to present bills calling for them. As a result, activists are forced to turn to the courts for relief, and taxpayers are forced to pay for their state officials to defend laws that ultimately are struck down.

No date has been set for a full hearing on all ten claims in the lawsuit - which is Independence Institute v Buescher - but the judge has already said that these two most restrictive parts of the law cannot be enforced. Hopefully this serves as a warning to other officials that they could find themselves in court attempting to defend clearly unconstitutional laws.

You can read the latest order here.