U.S. Supreme Court

Photos: Ten prisoners whose death penalties were switched to life

Yesterday's decision by Governor John Hickenlooper to grant murderer Nathan Dunlap a reprieve from the death penalty -- one that will stand as long as Hickenlooper is in office but can be reversed by successors -- doesn't stand alone. As noted by the Death Penalty Information Center, more than 270 d ... More >>

Marijuana: THC driving bill fails for third year -- but will it rise from the dead again?

Earlier this month, the latest version of a THC driving bill that had failed the past two years seemed to be on a steady march to passage despite e-mail protests and petitions. But no: Yesterday, the Senate Judiciary Committee voted 4-1 to squash the measure again. Why? One advocate believes the l ... More >>

Aborted fetus photos: Should protestors be allowed to display them where kids might see?

Should abortion protestors be allowed to wave signs featuring "gruesome images" in places where children might see them? That's the question two Colorado anti-abortion advocates and the Chicago-based Thomas More Society, a national pro-life law firm, want the U.S. Supreme Court to answer. "Children ... More >>

Do Mexican-American women still save themselves for marriage?

Mark Udall among lawmakers pushing for Stolen Valor replacement, easy detection websites

Last month, the Supreme Court of the United States overturned the national Stolen Valor Act of 2006. That decision led to the dismissal of charges against local college student Rick Strandlof ("Will the real Rick Strandlof please stand up?"), whose friends became suspicious when he pretended to be a ... More >>

Stolen Valor was born in Colorado before dying with the Supreme Court

In this week's cover feature, "Will the Real Rick Strandlof please stand up?," Westword delves into the fascinating story of 35-year-old college student Rick Strandlof, whose past false identities ended with a second chance last month. On June 28, the Supreme Court of the United States overturned th ... More >>

E.J. Dionne on the Supreme Court, cable news and evangelicals

Only a few hours after the Supreme Court declared Obama's health-insurance mandate constitutional, we spoke with Washington Post columnist and NPR commentator E.J. Dionne, who was at the Aspen Ideas Festival promoting his book, Our Divided Political Heart: The Battle for the American Idea in an Age ... More >>

Marijuana legalization efforts undermined by immigration ruling?

The Supreme Court's heath care ruling has made such a splash that it's easy to forget SCOTUS also weighed in on Arizona's controversial immigration law this week. What's the latter got to do with Amendment 64, the Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol Act? Plenty, say opponents, who see the opinion as doo ... More >>

Supreme Court justices are silent -- and shmucky -- on Rocky Flats decision

For years, people living around the Rocky Flats Nuclear Weapons Plant wondered if the secret operations at that facility could somehow be endangering the health of people and animals living nearby. And the FBI's spectacular dawn raid of Rocky Flats in June 1989, certainly didn't do much for propert ... More >>

Supreme Court health care ruling: Advocates praise it, tout Colorado reforms

Big news today for Barack Obama and, you know, tens of millions of Americans across the country: The Supreme Court of the United States has finally issued its ruling on the Affordable Care Act, essentially deciding to keep most of it intact. And advocates in Colorado are cheering the news, saying it ... More >>

Rocky Flats property owners won't get their $924 million, Supreme Court says

Plutonium lasts forever, and so do the legal actions emanating from Rocky Flats Nuclear Weapons Plant, which operated sixteen miles upwind from Denver for close to forty years. Yesterday, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to reinstate the $926 million judgment that 12,000 property owners near the plan ... More >>

Immigration: Supreme Court's Arizona-law ruling meaningless, says Tom Tancredo

As we reported yesterday, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down portions of SB-1070, Arizona's controversial immigration law, but left standing the "show me your papers" provision, which lets officers ask about the immigration status of those found to be suspicious. Many local immigration activists wer ... More >>

Jacob Ind, 40 others in Colorado could get new sentences due to Supreme Court juvie ruling

With a nod to emerging brain science that contends adolescents are fundamentally different from adults -- and a stern rebuke to the one-size-fits-all approach to prosecuting underaged defendants in adult courts -- the United States Supreme Court ruled Monday that a mandatory sentence of life without ... More >>

Immigration: Local activists praise, criticize Supreme Court's Arizona ruling

Today, the United States Supreme Court rejected three of four core provisions in Arizona's controversial immigration law -- but allowed the most hotly contested to remain. It is still legal for state police to stop, interview and detain people they have "reasonable suspicion" to believe entered the ... More >>

Latino activists prepare for the Supreme Court's ruling on Arizona's SB 1070

America's war on Mexicans has gone too far

Slide show: Xico Artists Featured in "Crossing the Line"

Crossing the Line

Freedom under fire: A Village Voice Media Special Report

Video: Thanks Obamacare! clip pleads "Don't Deny Us" as Supreme Court mulls ruling

Last November, we introduced you to ThanksObamacare.org, a local website aiming to transform "Obamacare" from an attack label used by opponents of the 2010 health-care law to a term of endearment. This week, the site's released a new video, "Don't Deny Us," which expands on this theme as political o ... More >>

Steve Howards-Dick Cheney case: 8-0 Supreme Court rejection bizarre, says David Lane

Yesterday, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 8-0 against Steve Howards, who claimed his free speech rights had been chilled by Secret Service agents when he approached then-Vice President Dick Cheney circa 2006. Hence, Howards can't sue the Secret Service. However, his attorney, David Lane, believes the ... More >>

Supreme Court will decide whether it's okay to lie about military service

Is lying about being a decorated combat vet particularly heinous? Or is 2005's Stolen Valor Act, which made it a misdemeanor offense to make false claims about receiving service medals and awards, unconstitutional because it violates the wannabe warrior's First Amendment rights?

Proposition 8 ruling: Could it make legislatures gun shy about civil unions?

Our post about the 9th Circuit Court declaring Proposition 8, California's gay marriage ban, unconstitutional, focused on the Colorado case that spelled doom for the state's anti-gay Amendment 2 circa the '90s. But could this ruling cause problems for measures like the civil unions bill progressing ... More >>

Proposition 8 ruling: Did Colorado's anti-gay Amendment 2 sow seeds for legal gay marriage?

Yesterday, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals declared unconstitutional California's Proposition 8, which banned same-sex marriage in the state. But the ruling, on view below, has a distinctly local flavor, since the jurists' argument is largely based on the U.S. Supreme Court's precedent-setting reje ... More >>

Dick Cheney-Secret Service case goes to Supreme Court: Speech vs. safety?

Dick Cheney.​While his fight on behalf of Occupy Denver's claims against the city may be over, attorney David Lane has another big case before him, on the biggest legal stage in the country. The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to hear the tale of Steven Howards, a Lane client who says his freed ... More >>

Occupy Denver's legal team explores precedents regarding tents and symbolic speech

​With 23 arrests related to Occupy Denver this weekend, the group's legal team is constantly adapting. This includes a new decision to request that arrestees go through the public defender's office instead of receiving volunteer counsel, as well as frequent reflections on precedents. At this w ... More >>

Colorado's probate courts riddled with neglect, lack of accountability, report finds

Flickr​Colorado does a miserable job of monitoring the guardians and conservators who control the finances -- and, in many cases, the living conditions -- of incapacitated adults, minor wards and other vulnerable populations, according to a scathing report released yesterday by the Office of t ... More >>

Disemboweling video: Will U.S. Supreme Court release prison footage of Joey Estrella slaying?

​What happens in a public trial becomes public record. Except when the government says it doesn't. That little hitch in the law fuels the ongoing battle between Prison Legal News and the U.S. Justice Department over a graphic video shot inside the U.S. Penitentiary Florence in the aftermath of ... More >>

Air Force Academy prayer luncheon lawsuit: Faculty members say event's unconstitutional

AFA chapel.​Attorney David Lane may have lost his last high-profile case -- an excessive-force complaint against Denver cop/ex-American Gladiators contestant Vicki Ferrari -- but he's hardly shying away from taking on big challenges. Note that he's just filed a lawsuit against the Air Force Ac ... More >>

David Sirota named justice on Matt Taibbi's Supreme Court of Assholedom: Congrats!

David Sirota.​If syndicated columnist and AM 760 talk-show host David Sirota's parents ever hoped their son would one day become a member of the Supreme Court, their wish has (kinda) been granted. Today, Sirota is announcing that he has been named one of nine justices on the Supreme Court of ... More >>

Leslie Weise, Alex Young: Supreme Court won't hear No More Blood for Oil bumper-sticker case

​Back in 2005, Leslie Weise and Alex Young were prevented from attending a George W. Bush speech because their car sported a bumper sticker reading "No More Blood for Oil." The two, assisted by the ACLU, have been fighting this expulsion ever since -- but today, they reached the end of the lin ... More >>

Signed, sealed and rejected: These political activists are rabble with a cause

Tim Tebow's the No. 3 Broncos quarterback: One down, two to go

"I'm strapping it on, boys."​Here's three tasty Denver blog samples. On Mile High Report, NavyBSU_fan comments on a report that Tim Tebow is third on the Broncos' QB depth chart, having passed Tom Brandstater. "In other news," he writes, "dog bites man." Ouch! 5280's Michael de Yoanna notes ... More >>

Smoking ban on stage: The Supreme Court declines to hear Curious Theatre's case

A Flickr photoYou won't be seeing these on the Curious Theatre stage.​In December, we told you about the Colorado Supreme Court's ruling against the Curious Theatre, which had argued that extending the state's smoking ban to the stage improperly infringed on creative expression. Curious appea ... More >>

Sex offender issue goes to the Supreme Court

​The controversy continues to grow over last-minute changes in HB 1364. The measure extends the life of the Colorado Sex Offender Management Board for five years, but removes the words "no known cure" -- as originally presented, the measure included those words and charged the board to study w ... More >>

Denver Blogs: Could the Broncos lose Elvis Dumervil, Tony Scheffler, Peyton Hillis, Chris Kuper and Brandon Marshall?

Elvis, don't leave the building!​It's the first Denver Blogs roundup of the week! In a mock-draft post, Mile High Report's Sayre Bedinger says it's not beyond the realm of possibility that Tony Scheffler, Peyton Hillis, Chris Kuper and Elvis Dumervil could join Brandon Marshall on the train o ... More >>

"Terrible" Supreme Court ruling a slap in the face to Colorado voters, says Colorado Ethics Watch head

A Flickr photoComing to a TV station near you?​Yesterday, in a 5-4 decision, the U.S. Supreme Court essentially gave corporations and unions carte blanche to spend as much as they'd like on campaigns, and to do so directly. Because the ruling conflicts with a voter-passed 2002 Colorado amendm ... More >>

Will Sonia Sotomayor soon be getting a Supreme Court demo from Officer "Numchuck Sticks"?

Heads up your Honor! ​Despite this week's Westword cover story detailing Sonia Sotomayor's clear judicial bias against "numchuck sticks," the Senate still voted to confirm the wise-Latina-loving nominee to the U.S. Supreme Court on August 6. (Apparently the powerful pro-nunchaku lobby was too ... More >>

The Westword.com blog shortcut, August 6 edition

​Would you like to sniff the cork? Today in Cafe Society: • Grapes and grilling tonight at Strings. • Guess where I'm drinking? • Martini Ranch and Hiccups III dry up. • And the new, New York Times restaurant critic is... • Tonight's shochu dinner at Elway's Cherry Creek could be th ... More >>

Weighing Sonia Sotomayor's Latina cred

Focus on the Family's nightmare scenario about an Obama victory

Colorado's Bubble Law was the first in the country... but not the last

Carved in Stone

Twenty years after Jim Stone first blew the whistle on Rockwell International, he got his day in court -- the Supreme Court.

Off Limits

Going, Going, Gonzo

The Eye of the Beholder

Defining the limits of obscenity.

Follow That Story

Bush's Affirmative Action

Derailing Affirmative Action

Randy Pech says the government's disadvantaged business programs discriminated against his company. This fall, the U.S. Supreme Court will decide if he's right.

Low Blows

Spin Cycles

Laundered money, the shadow of big tobacco, and a blubbering court reporter: The wild trial over Colorado's Amendment 15.

The AG's No. 1 Problem

A gender-changing lawyer in Gale Norton's office causes a bathroom stink.

Adding Insult to Injury

Pulling the plug on attorney advertising could get somebody sued -- including the State of Colorado

STAND UP FOR YOUR PRINCIPALS!