This just in from Aspen activist Jeffrey Evans on the entrance to Aspen:

Just in time for the holidays (or perhaps more to the point – the holiday traffic jam) it’s time for an update on the effort to place two entrance ballot question before Aspen voters.

    You might remember that a hearing officer and the District Court found that the core questions posed by our successful petition drive were “legislative”, and therefore appropriate to the initiative process.  However, both found that there was unacceptable “administrative” material contained in the petitions, and that caused them to block a public vote.  Neither authority would agree to remove the unacceptable portions of the initiatives (and we’re still not quite sure what those are) so that what remained of the proposals could be voted upon.

    A local newspapers recently reported that the Colorado Court of Appeals affirmed the judgment of the District Court – thus continuing to block a vote.  The new wrinkle is that for the first time the court found that no portion of our petitions is legislative.  In the process of reaching this conclusion, the court created a brand new framework for determining whether an initiative is “legislative” or “administrative”.

    On December 14th, your initiative representatives filed a “Petition for Writ of Certiorari” to the Colorado Supreme Court, asking them to review the case.  The Supreme Court is not obligated to hear the case, and could let the Court of Appeals decision stand by simply not taking it on.   However, concern over the new standard for determining legislative and administrative content is so strong that amicus curiae (friends of the court) briefs asking the Supreme Court to accept the case have been filed by Colorado Common Cause, the Initiative and Referendum Institute, Independence Institute, and Citizens In Charge.

Participants:

The Colorado chapter of the nationwide organization Common Cause, founded in 1970, has over 300,000 members.
Citizens in Charge is a nationwide advocacy group devoted to protecting and expanding citizens’ initiative and referendum rights.
Initiative & Referendum Institute is a non-partisan educational and research organization affiliated with the University of Southern California.
Independence Institute is a non-partisan, non-profit public policy research organization headquartered in Golden, Colorado.

    None of these groups is specifically arguing that our particular petitions should be allowed to go to the electorate, just that the basis on which they were denied is completely inappropriate – and presents a threat to the initiative process itself.  However, if the Supreme Court agrees to hear the case and overturns the decision of the Court of Appeals, that would effectively mean that either the questions could go to the electorate – or the Supreme Court would need to create a new basis for denial.

    At this point, the outcome of our appeal to the Supreme Court may have a greater importance than the original issue.  Stay tuned, this should get interesting.

Jeffrey