Jared Polis for Congress

by Jared Polis

The courts gave a major victory to the cause of ethics reform in Colorado today. After the voters overwhelmingly passed Amendment 41 in 2006, which established a ban on lobbyists giving gifts to public officials with an “attempt to influence,” the special interests did two things in their attempts to undermine the ethics law:

1) Used their media relations apparatus to engage in scare tactics by raising the specter of highly speculative applications of the amendment including denying kids scholarships, hurting charitable relief and bereavement funds, and

2) Sought and received a preliminary injunction based on the uncertainty that they themselves played a major role in creating

Fortunately, the Supreme Court has struck down the preliminary injunction and is now allowing the Ethics Commission created by the Amendment to get to work and move forward in implementing ethics reform in Colorado.

This is a great vindication for Common Cause and the other members of the coalition supporting the Amendment, and also for the people of Colorado who have demanded more integrity in government.

The Supreme Court ruled on a number of legal issues relating to the motion including whether Governor Ritter was the proper defendant (yes) and whether the amendment is self-executing (yes). But the most relevant political component of the ruling was regarding the free speech issues raised by the plaintiffs, and the court opined:

While Plaintiffs allege that the Amendment’s provisions have already had a chilling impact on both their professional and personal lives, in actuality, no enforcement or threat of enforcement of the gift bans has occurred. It is the Commission that will implement the Amendment and develop rules to guide the enforcement of the gift bans…

…these fears, which undoubtedly have caused Plaintiffs and others much anxiety, are merely speculative interpretations of what might occur once the Commission is operative. We refrain from entering this sphere of uncertainty.

You can read the entire 34-page decision here

As anyone closely following this saga knows, there have been no scholarships lost, no collections for charity impacted, no “parade of horribles” by any action stemming from Amendment 41. The only ordinary activities not related to influencing official decisions that were impacted were only adversely affected because of the fear-mongering and scare tactics of the special interests apparatus that worked overtime to scare good people with “speculative” interpretations of the Ethics law passed overwhelmingly by the people.

The overwhelming majority of Coloradoans made it clear that they support a strong ethics reform; today’s ruling upholds this will of the people. The Supreme Court is now giving the law a change to move forward, and the Ethics Commission now clearly has the responsibility and authority to help make Colorado’s strong ethics laws work for all of us.