President (To Win Colorado)
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(D) Kamala Harris
(R) Donald Trump
80%
20%
CO-01 (Denver)
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(D) Diana DeGette*
(R) V. Archuleta
98%
2%
CO-02 (Boulder-ish)
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(D) Joe Neguse*
(R) Marshall Dawson
95%
5%
CO-03 (West & Southern CO)
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(D) Adam Frisch
(R) Jeff Hurd
50%
50%
CO-04 (Northeast-ish Colorado)
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(R) Lauren Boebert
(D) Trisha Calvarese
90%
10%
CO-05 (Colorado Springs)
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(R) Jeff Crank
(D) River Gassen
80%
20%
CO-06 (Aurora)
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(D) Jason Crow*
(R) John Fabbricatore
90%
10%
CO-07 (Jefferson County)
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(D) B. Pettersen
(R) Sergei Matveyuk
90%
10%
CO-08 (Northern Colo.)
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(D) Yadira Caraveo
(R) Gabe Evans
70%↑
30%
State Senate Majority
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DEMOCRATS
REPUBLICANS
80%
20%
State House Majority
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DEMOCRATS
REPUBLICANS
95%
5%
February 15, 2012 12:33 AM UTC
15 Comments
This is a good bill that deserves to be passed. It is good for Colorado, and improves the human rights record of the United States as well, in the process.
I’m glad to see it has bipartisan suppport.
Lurking in the background is another statute the criminalizes certain false statements in political campaign ads, but it is best not to muddy the issues now and to fix the broader criminal libel statute’s flaws before moving on to the narrower election related speech law which would be more narrowly interpreted given constitutional considerations, if it was invoked.
Parts of Colorado’s criminal libel statute (which provides that certain disparaging truthful statements regarding the dead and of people such as the feeble minded are crimes) have already been invalidated, but this leaves the threat of criminal prosecutions hanging over a lot of speech under current Colorado law.
But, because I’m just that kind of guy, I’ll wonder if he’s going to have the chutzpah to attack the ACLU for political points in the future, now that he’s worked with them on an actual legislative matter.
Why would you expect anything different? Likewise, if the ACLU decides to criticize Brophy, let’s hope they don’t pull any punches merely because they were allies on this issue.
Comes from one of the most conservative districts of the state — I should know, I grew up there and still own a farm in Phillips County. But I remember Chris Romer describing him as very intelligent and there is a lot more to him than meets the eye.
He drives a Prius. He’s an avid cyclist. And if warring against imaginary anti-gun bills gives him credibility with the uber right, he does occasionally put that to use.
and there is a definite need for this type of bill. Impressive.
former Pols user will be pissed.
There’ll be no chance of his becoming a felon for it…
He had testimony lined up from not only the ACLU and the Colorado Press Association, but also the Attorney General’s office. That’s covering all the bases
And if so, how did it go?
There were five people testifying for the bill, none opposed and it passed the committee 6-0. Couldn’t ask for anything better than that
I believe (and someone correct me if I’m wrong) the original intent of the criminal libel law was to protect a business from someone (a competitor most likely) from spreading false and malicious information. As an example, a fruit grower who might spread a rumor about another fruit grower that their product was unsafe to eat.
Several years ago I was threatened with criminal libel by a developer when I published a website detailing the developer’s nefarious business record which included criminal financial fraud (all of it fully documented). I replied to their attorney to go ahead and have a DA serve me with the charging documents. Of course it never happened, but the mere fact they used that statue to try to intimidate me is reason enough to repeal it.
was actually to replace the practice of dueling– if you look at the printed statutes, just above criminal libel is the repealed law governing dueling. The law itself dates from the 1880s.
There are other disparagement laws that have been enacted at the request of business lobbies, but I believe that they are civil statutes.
Thanks for the background info on this. I knew it was an old law.
Sen. Brophy really does deserve credit on this one. Criminalizing speech is abhorrent to the 1st Amendment. He is bright and his analysis on why he was bringing this was spot on. Kudos to the AGs too for standing up for the constitution on this one.