Colorado Supreme Court Justice Rebecca Kourlis, lauded by the legal community for a decade of work that helped revamp the state’s judicial system, is resigning, effective Jan. 10.
Denver lawyer John Moye, a former president of the Colorado Bar Association, said he and Kourlis plan to found a judicial institute that will work with the best legal minds in the nation to help solve problems affecting the U.S. legal system.
It was Kourlis’ commitment to finding similar solutions in Colorado that won praise Monday from lawyers and Supreme Court colleagues. They praised her work heading committees that hammered out judicial reforms, improved the state’s ability to discipline lawyers, gave juries more input and simplified divorce.
“The opportunity to serve on this court has been a great honor,” Kourlis, 53, said in a statement. “It is now time for me to undertake a new challenge – one that continues to allow me to contribute to the system of justice.”
Many lawyers refused to label Kourlis as a moderate, conservative or liberal, though some said she was conservative to moderate in outlook. They said she wasn’t dogmatic. Her father, John Love, was a Republican governor, but she was appointed to the high court by a Democratic governor, Roy Romer.
Although she sometimes has been critical of prosecutors in opinions, she often has sided with law enforcement.
Dave Thomas, former Jefferson County district attorney and now executive director of the Colorado District Attorneys’ Council, called Kourlis a “big supporter of prosecution. We’ve all considered her to be a friend. She was very well respected and liked,” Thomas said.
Gov. Bill Owens said he plans to replace Kourlis with someone who has similar views and is conservative in temperament. The governor said he is looking for a “strict constructionist – someone who doesn’t try to read into the law and the constitution more than is there. I’m a person who for 20 years has believed that the courts should interpret the law not expand it and create new law,” he said.
He said Kourlis held views similar to his own. “I think she was a great justice,” the governor said. He said the new appointee may very well be a woman. He said he recommended Kourlis to the White House for the U.S. Supreme Court six months ago.
The 15-member bipartisan Supreme Court Nominating Commission will submit three names to the governor. From that group he will make a final choice.
At present, Chief Justice Mary Mullarkey and Justice Gregory Hobbs are considered to be the court’s moderates; Michael Bender and Alex Martinez the liberals; and Ben Coats, Nancy Rice and Kourlis the more conservative. But unlike some state Supreme Courts, none of the justices are considered ideologues.
Mullarkey said she will miss Kourlis.
“She can expect me to be hanging on to her ankles as she goes out,” Mullarkey said. “She has just been a wonderful colleague.
“She has really been a leader in a lot of areas that the court has oversight in. She really was involved in the way we changed the way we disciplined attorneys. She has been very involved in jury reform and the whole area of family law.”
It was Kourlis who wrote the unanimous opinion in the case of Mark Pautler, a Jefferson County prosecutor who posed as a public defender in hopes of bringing about the surrender of mass murderer William “Cody” Neal, who killed three women and tortured and raped a fourth.
Kourlis wrote that Colorado prosecutors are bound by the highest moral and ethical standards and can’t resort to deception even to capture someone like Neal.
Justice Michael Bender, who at times disagreed with Kourlis, said her departure leaves a “huge hole” at the Supreme Court.
“She is immensely intellectually gifted, she is very articulate, she works very hard, she’s productive, and she adds a very significant and important perspective to the work of the court and the administration of justice,” he said.
Staff writer Howard Pankratz can be reached at 303-820-1939 or hpankratz@denverpost.com.
