June 25, 2015 10:58 AM UTC

Get More Smarter on Thursday (June 25)

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• by: Colorado Pols

Happy belated St. Jean-Baptiste Day to our Canadian friends. It’s time to Get More Smarter with Colorado Pols! If you think we missed something important, please include the link in the comments below (here’s a good example).

TOP OF MIND TODAY…

► The United States Supreme Court has ruled to uphold federal subsidies related to Obamacare. As Chief Justice John Roberts wrote for the 6-3 majority decision:

Congress passed the Affordable Care Act to improve health insurance markets, not to destroy them.

This is a win-win decision politically — for both parties. The decision is obviously beneficial for Democrats who supported Obamacare, but it also allows Republicans to continue to crow about the horrors of health care legislation — which they are doing already — without having to do any actual governing on their own.

► Turnover among staff in the Jefferson County School District is up 50% over the previous year, attributable almost entirely to the antics of the right-wing majority and (not so) Superintendent Dan McMinimee.

► Colorado Pols continues to be your home for the latest news on The Coffmangate Scandal. We’re still baffled that Attorney General Cynthia Coffman would put her career on the line to help former state Sen. Ted Harvey get a real job. Elsewhere, a group of conservative talk-radio hosts have resigned from KLZ-560 AM, claiming that station management is interfering with their “coverage” of the coup attempt against State Party Chair Steve House. “I guess they didn’t realize they don’t own the radio station,” said Crawford Broadcasting President Don Crawford, Jr.

Get even more smarter after the jump…

IN CASE YOU ARE STANDING NEAR A WATER COOLER…

► President Obama’s legacy is now assured, says the New York Times in the wake of the Supreme Court ruling upholding federal subsidies for Obamacare.

► The U.S. Supreme Court may soon decide on the fate of a lawsuit challenging Colorado’s TABOR amendments, as the Colorado Statesman reports:

The U.S. Supreme Court isn’t considering the merits of a 2011 lawsuit, brought by a group of current and former elected officials, including state Sen. Andy Kerr, D-Lakewood, and House Speaker Dickey Lee Hullinghorst, D-Boulder. Instead, the court is expected to announce whether justices are granting certiorari and will hear the case or whether they’re sending it back to a lower court.

The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court in May 2011. Attorneys for the State of Colorado filed a motion to dismiss at that time, claiming the plaintiffs lack standing to file the lawsuit and arguing that the case itself is a political question, which federal courts typically avoid.

The District Court denied the motion and the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals then denied a request by the state for a rehearing, leaving the Supreme Court to decide.

“We’re not yet at the point where (the Supreme Court) could be asked the merits of the case,” said David Skaggs, an attorney for the group that filed the suit.

Certiorari! Certiorari! Certiorari! It’s fun to say!

► Republican Presidential candidate Rand Paul is coming to Colorado next week, but not for the Western Conservative Summit.

► Chris Myklebust has been appointed as Colorado’s State Bank Commissioner. In other news, Colorado apparently has something called a State Bank Commissioner.

► Wednesday was “Bike to Work Day” in Denver. As Jesse Paul reports for the Denver Post, the event attracted participants…who don’t even have a commute:

Beth Teitell works from home, but Wednesday she wasn’t about to let a technicality leave her feeling left out of Denver’s massive Bike to Work Day.

“I got up at 4:30 this morning and wondered why I was doing it since I don’t even have to commute,” Teitell, of Littleton, said while taking in the scene at Civic Center Park downtown. “In the end, it was well worth it.”

 Okay, then.

OTHER LINKS YOU SHOULD CLICK

► Gov. John Hickenlooper has appointed appellate court judge Richard Gabriel to succeed retiring Justice Gregory Hobbs.

► The Western Governor’s Association is meeting to discuss drought problems in the Western U.S. Things are getting pretty dire in Nevada, where Lake Mead has dropped to its lowest level in history.

ICYMI

► Planned Parenthood held a “bake sale” on Monday to call attention to the failure by Senate Republicans to reauthorize funding for the state’s highly successful IUD contraception program.

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