Colorado judiciary long on taxpayer money, short on transparency

Arthur Kane describes how Colorado’s judicial department has refused to release its documents to the general public, a customary practice of other departments in the state and a necessity for government transparency. To highlight this, Kane describes his encounter with Colorado Court Administrator Gerald Marroney, along with a 2012 appellate court ruling, which is the main reason why the department does not have to release its records to the public under the Colorado Open Records Act (CORA). In addition, Kane discusses Judicial Watch’s 2010 lawsuit against Colorado’s Attorney Regulation Counsel after it could not obtain records of their Maricopa County, Arizona, attorney’s office investigation. This lawsuit was fairly successfully, since the district court agreed with Judicial Watch that these records need to be released under CORA. Unfortunately, the appellate court ruling in 2012 reversed that constitutional decision. You can read more about this lawsuit from 2010 here.

Tom Fitton explained why this FOIA lawsuit was necessary at the time, as quoted in this article:

“It’s just unusual for another state to come in to investigate a duly elected official,” said Judicial Watch president Tom Fitton, adding his organization asked the state Supreme Court to review the ruling, but the high court declined. “We wanted to know how it was done.”