February 25, 2008 07:22 PM UTC

Amendment 41 Injunction Reversed

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• by: Colorado Pols

Lunch at The Palm, anyone? Who’s buying? From the Colorado Supreme Court this morning:

Court’s conclusion:

Today we hold that Amendment 41, as adopted by Colorado voters in November 2006, is self-executing. The Amendment’s independent ethics commission was intended to implement and enforce its provisions, separate and apart from any further action of the legislature. We also recognize that Governor Ritter is a proper party defendant in this case. Nonetheless, because the preliminary injunction was issued before the Commission came into existence, and before it had the opportunity to act in furtherance of the Amendment, we find that Plaintiffs failed to present a ripe as-applied constitutional challenge. We do not address the other issues on appeal. We uphold the district court’s denial of the motion to dismiss on the proper party and self-execution issues. Because the district court did not have the jurisdiction to grant a preliminary injunction, however, we reverse its order and direct the court to vacate the preliminary injunction.

At the top of the list, we would count the chief beneficiary of today’s ruling as CD-2 candidate Jared Polis. We would say so, since clearly Amendment 41 is the stick political insiders have been beating Polis with since it was passed in 2006 and is broadly viewed as the chief reason for his falling out with Democratic leadership, but we’re waiting to see if he responds magnanimously–or with the kind of spiteful arrogance about 41 that put off former friends to begin with. UPDATE: Polis responds.

The chief losers from today’s decision are in all probability the “sky-is-falling” chorus that dogged Amendment 41 into injunction over the past year. They are partly right to minimize the ruling as not addressing the merits of the case, but it’s not that simple.

What many of 41’s opponents fear most is the Ethics Commission prescribed by the law being successfully established, since it is likely to shake out the more alarmist hypothetical cases posed by 41’s detractors as baseless and establish operating procedures that administer the law fairly. What the Supremes said essentially is that the commission has to be established now, and an actual sanction made before the case is “ripe” to be adjudicated. Amendment 41’s defenders at Colorado Common “Curse” Cause insist that the commission will demystify the “scare tactics” used by opponents and show that Amendment 41 can work constitutionally, dramatically changing the discussion.

But if there’s anybody out there who already has a well-formed opinion about Amendment 41, it’s our distinguished readers. Like Rush Limbaugh loves to say, tell us what to think.