The Colorado Supreme Court ruled today that a proposal to deny most state services to illegal immigrants cannot appear on the November ballot.
The proposed constitutional amendment, promoted by Defend Colorado Now, violated a state constitutional requirement that initiatives deal with only one subject, the court said in a 5-2 opinion.
According to the ruling, Defend Colorado Now touted the possibility of reducing taxpayer expenditures by restricting illegal immigrants’ access to services, as well as the goal of restricting access to services.
Proponents, including former Democratic Gov. Dick Lamm, already had begun gathering petition signatures to get the measure on the ballot, and the state Title Board approved the measure’s language this spring. But today’s ruling may mean the issue is dead for this year because a key deadline for the November ballot has passed.
“This is outrageous judicial activism, Exhibit A in how courts disregard precedent to reach a political result,” Lamm said in a statement. “This isn’t law, it is raw, naked politics.” Activist Manolo Gonzalez-Estay had challenged the measure in court after the Title Board rejected his request to reconsider its approval of the initiative’s language.
Fred Elbel, director of Defend Colorado Now, did not immediately return a call seeking comment today.
The measure would not stop the state from paying for federally mandated services such as public education or emergency medical care. But Elbel has said it would prevent illegal immigrants from receiving welfare and in-state college tuition.
In a dissent, Justices Nathan Coats and Nancy Rice expressed concern that the court’s majority decision was influenced by the motives of the measure’s proponents and by its potential effects.
They said the court has inconsistently applied the single-subject requirement, giving justices “unfettered discretion to either approve or disapprove virtually any popularly initiated ballot measure at will.”
