Constitutional Law

Civil rights activist Whitney Young Jr. to be featured on PBS's The Powerbroker

When you think of the Civil Rights Movement, you likely think of Martin Luther King Jr. -- for good reason. The role he played was monumental -- and because of that, monuments have been erected, pages in textbooks set aside and a national holiday named in his honor. So much attention has been given ... More >>

Alex Laundau responds to feds' decision not to charge Denver cops who brutally beat him

Organizations hoping to bury unpleasant or potentially controversial news traditionally release information late Friday, in the hope that many folks already in weekend mode miss the development. A classic example: Justice Department reps chose Friday at 6:30 p.m. to inform Alex Landau that they woul ... More >>

Justin Smith, Larimer County sheriff, says he won't enforce "unconstitutional" gun laws

In recent days, President Barack Obama has proposed new gun control laws following the Sandy Hook shooting -- and Colorado lawmakers such as Representative Rhonda Fields are backing similar measures. The trend clearly concerns Larimer County Sheriff Justin Smith, who's now announced that his office ... More >>

Colorado Springs not yet enforcing law against panhandling -- but is "educating" people

Last week, we reported on a lawsuit from the American Civil Liberties Union against Colorado Springs, which is pushing forward with a controversial anti-panhandling law that critics see as violating free-speech rights. The city says it won't start enforcement for a few weeks, but will begin educatio ... More >>

Denver cops are back to moonlighting at Chloe

Democratic caucuses: Senators, faith leaders encourage participation, decry vote suppression

In a 1965 civil rights march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, African-Americans and other minority citizens secured the right to vote. To honor their efforts, Colorado Democratic lawmakers, faith leaders and march veterans are urging citizens to utilize their voting rights by participating in toni ... More >>

Reader: Occupy Denver legal team member calls out ACLU over civil-rights case claims

​Kelsey Whipple's recent post about Occupy Denver's legal team exploring legal precedents involving tents as examples of speech drew a sharp response from a member of the occupation's Legal Issues Working Group. His post focuses on both the aforementioned lawyers and the ACLU, which he feels c ... More >>

What Goes Around

Medical marijuana crackdown in California illegal because it's not happening in Colorado?

​Yesterday, attorneys in California asked a court to issue a temporary restraining order to stop federal raids on pot dispensaries there. This request makes a slew of legal arguments, one of which pivots on the lack of such federal actions in Colorado -- at least thus far. But as sympathetic ... More >>

Occupy Denver to hold press conference at 10 p.m. about being kicked off Capitol grounds

​Members of the Occupy Denver movement will hold a press conference at 10 p.m. in the wake of Governor John Hickenlooper and Mayor Michael Hancock's announcement that the group can no longer camp out on the grounds of the Colorado State Capitol overnight. The group issued a press release this ... More >>

National Western Stock Show: Will Aurora give Gaylord Entertainment the right to vote?

​What's next? Cows will get to cast ballots in Aurora? The Libertarian Party -- like the National Western Stock Show, an institution that got its start in Colorado -- is concerned that Aurora is about to give voting rights to a corporation: Gaylord Entertainment, the out-of-state company tryin ... More >>

Mike Coffman, repeat Shmuck, wants to make it harder for Spanish speakers to vote

Mike Coffman.​U.S. Representative Mike Coffman is no stranger to voter suppression. In fact, the 6th District Republican lawmaker has a long history of tinkering with elections. His latest campaign would make it more difficult for people who don't speak English well to vote across the country ... More >>

Medical marijuana lawsuit filed, claims regulations violate state constitution

Kathleen Chippi.​In May, cannabis advocate Kathleen Chippi asked for donations to help her file a lawsuit to challenge Colorado medical marijuana regulations, which went into effect today. And while she didn't collect quite as much as she hoped, the total was enough to make the suit viable. It ... More >>

ACLU objects to Ken Buck's comments after $295K Operations Numbers Game settlement

Ken Buck.​In 2008, the Weld County Sheriff's Office raided Amalia's Translation and Tax Service in Greeley as part of Operations Numbers Game, an effort to bust identity thieves who were also undocumented immigrants. The ACLU filed suit over the action -- and this week, Weld District Attorney/ ... More >>

Janet Napolitano intros "If You See Something, Say Something" video: Like 24, except lamer

Video below.​Why was Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano in Denver yesterday? To promote the expansion to Colorado of DHS' "If You See Something, Say Something" campaign. The flagship item is a video on view below about the general public keeping an eye out for terrorist ... More >>

Tonight: Growing up White on the Reservation revisits a turbulent time in 1972

Pamela Mencher is white.​Pamela Mencher has spent eleven years working on her play -- but in some ways, she's been working on it her whole life. Born on a Lakota/Sioux reservation in Pine Ridge, South Dakota, Mencher spent her formative years there and on a Blackfeet reservation in Montana dur ... More >>

Martyred Unknown

ACLU stands up for right of Colorado Springs middle schooler to wear rosary at public school

Flickr​Critics of the ACLU portray the organization as an apologist for flag burners. As such, the group loves to show it's about principles, not ideology. Case in point: Its defense of Cainan Gostnell, a Colorado Springs student whose middle school has banned wearing religious symbols like ro ... More >>

Striptease pays off: Boulder City council offers $10,000 to boxer-shorts-protester Seth Brigham

Seth Brigham under arrest.​Back in February, we told you about Seth Brigham's nipple-baring appearance at a Boulder City Council meeting -- a protest of sorts against a proposed nudity ordinance that would have criminalized the display of female nipples in the city. Brigham, who remained in hi ... More >>

Cannabis Therapy Institute attacks new regs, declares medical marijuana law unconstitutional

Friday's MMJ meeting.​On Friday, the Colorado Department of Revenue's medical marijuana advisory committee met at a session belatedly opened to the public -- and the folks at the Cannabis Therapy Institute were troubled by the draft regulations released in conjunction with the get-together. S ... More >>

Bare nipples at Boulder city council meeting: David Lane takes on Seth Brigham's cause

Seth Brigham being arrested.​To protest an ordinance that might have criminalized women who publicly bare their nipples, Boulder's Seth Brigham stripped to his boxers at a February city council meeting -- and was promptly arrested. Four months later, David Lane, fresh from winning a $5.9 mill ... More >>

Josh "Penal" Penry: Felons vote the Democratic ticket

"How can I woo the sex offender vote?"​Yes, it's the season for blustery rhetoric and high-pressure posturing down at the statehouse. But few stunts can match, for sheer unintended hilarity, this recent blast from Colorado Senate Republicans, denouncing a bill to restore voting rights to stat ... More >>

David Lane's lawsuit against University of Wyoming over William Ayers speech ban takes the First (Amendment)

David Lane wants Ayers action fast.​When the University of Wyoming rescinded an invitation for controversial professor William Ayers to speak on campus, attorney David Lane sent the school a letter threatening to sue on behalf of student Meg Lanker. If the school didn't respond by his deadlin ... More >>

Colorado Civil Rights Commission discovers that discrimination has not disappeared in a decade

​The people gathered in a meeting room at the Blair Caldwell library last summer were getting restless. "You all wasted our time," proclaimed one community activist. "This was not a waste of your time," replied Rico Munn, then-director of the Colorado Department of Regulatory Affairs, which i ... More >>

Rob Corry threatens Denver City Council with lawsuits over medical marijuana ordinance

A spoof ad showing Rob Corry as a "scorced earth warrior" for medical marijuana.​On Friday, we shared with you a letter by attorney Rob Corry shredding Senator Chris Romer's latest draft of a measure to regulate the medical marijuana industry. Shortly thereafter, Romer backed away from the bil ... More >>

Medical marijuana dispensary victory in Castle Rock: Town backs down

Plants 4 Life is back to serving customers dishes like this.​On Monday, we updated you onthe story of Plants 4 Life, a Castle Rock medical marijuana dispensary that had received a business license from the town only to be prevented from selling its main product because weed is illegal under fe ... More >>

Medical marijuana attorney Rob Corry: "The future is here"

Rob Corry has his PR cannon aimed squarely at Centennial.​The lawsuit against Centennial by CannaMart, a medical marijuana dispensary the city shut down despite granting it a business license a short time earlier, gets its first reading in court today, and Rob Corry and a team of attorneys rep ... More >>

Medical-marijuana-dispensary closure lawsuit could set precedent, attorney says

Bob Hoban and Rob Corry, joined by plaintiffs, speak at a news conference today about the CannaMart lawsuit.​Earlier today, we told you about a lawsuit aimed at Centennial for closing CannaMart, a medical-marijuana dispensary, in mid-October. According to Bob Hoban, one of two attorneys repres ... More >>

From the week of October 8, 2009

Drink up, Denver! The Division of Civil Rights has confirmed your right to enjoy ladies' night

Threat against abortion doctor Warren Hern: Read the indictment here

Warren Hern, in an image from a Boulder Daily Camera video.​As Patricia Calhoun pointed out earlier this morning, Boulder's Warren Hern, the last practitioner in the U.S. still doing late-term abortions, was the subject of a death threat by a Spokane, Washington, man, Donald Hertz, mere weeks ... More >>

Steve Horner fights for his right to be wrong.

Wake-Up Call: Civil rights, better late than never

​"You all wasted our time," proclaimed community activist Alvertis Simmons at a public forum held July 27 by the Colorado Division of Civil Rights. "This was not a waste of your time," replied Rico Munn, the cool-headed director of the Department of Regulatory Affairs, which includes the Div ... More >>

Wake-Up Call: Civil Rights on the road

​ The Colorado Civil Rights Commission took its show on the road last night, hosting an evening forum at the Blair-Caldwell Library. And if the conversation didn't seem to go exactly where Colorado Civil Rights Division director Steve Chavez wanted it to go -- after an active initial discussio ... More >>

Steve Horner: A name that drives people to drink

On my way home from the Colorado Civil Rights Forum last night, I stopped by Lola, which was hosting the first of the Denver Five dinners. (More on that coming later today from Nancy Levine, who was at the dinner from the start.) And, inevitably, I spotted a restaurateur in the crowd who's had rece ... More >>

Wake-Up Call: Disorder in the court

The fireworks started early for the 4th. Early last week, we got a call from a reporter in Mankato, Minnesota, researching a story about Steve Horner, the anti-ladies night crusader who started his fight in that state (where he wound up in jail for harassing the head of Minnesota's civil rights co ... More >>

Ladies Night foe Steve Horner doesn't even live here. So how can we discriminate against him?

The Colorado Civil Rights Division has a double standard for ladies' nights -- and newspapers

Wayne Laugesen Vs. Richard Baker: The Debate

Another Dispute Between Ward Churchill and the Daily Camera

Drink Up, Ladies!

Steve Horner's crusade to end ladies' nights falls flat.

Ladies’ Nights, RIP

And you know who to blame: Steve Horner.

Last Call for Ladies’ Nights?

If Steve Horner gets his way, ladies could be singing the booze.

Letters to the Editor

From the week of 2/22/2007

Ladies' Plight

Rosa Parks didn't surrender to discrimination and take a different bus. So why should Steve Horner go to a different bar?

Whistle Stop

A Supreme Court decision may challenge workers' First Amendment rights.

The High Cost of Free Speech

RTD pays a six-figure settlement for muzzling its own directors.

Follow That Story

Nurses Denied

Good Cop, White Cop

Ronnie Williams says he's being punished for trying to start a white officers' association.

Not a Pretty Picture

When you're fighting for artists' rights, things can get ugly.