Former Colorado Senate president John Andrews, who is attempting to limit the terms of judges and justices, also is behind an effort to remove Judge Jose D.L. Marquez from Colorado’s Court of Appeals.
Andrews said Monday he is “pulling together” a group called the Committee to Retire Judge Marquez.
Andrews called Marquez, who has served on the Court of Appeals for 18 years, “the poster boy for term limits” and said he wanted to expose the “shocking mediocrity” of the judge’s record.
Marquez has said it is inappropriate for him to comment on the effort to oust him.
However, Elizabeth Starrs, president of the Colorado Bar Association, said she finds it “curious” that Andrews would target a judge who most attorneys and judges believe should be retained.
In a poll conducted on behalf of the Commission on Judicial Performance, Marquez received a 95 percent retention recommendation from attorneys and a 99 percent retention recommendation from judges.
Ultimately, the commission voted 6-4 to recommend that Marquez be retained. The panel voted 10-0 to recommend the other four judges be retained.
“The performance commission let the people down,” Andrews said. “They had the evidence there in front of them. This is not an A-team judge.”
On Monday, Andrews could cite only one example where he believed Marquez erred. He pointed to a 2002 ruling in which Marquez joined another judge, Leonard Plank, in deciding the right to bear arms is not absolute and a city like Denver may regulate the right to bear arms under its police power as long as the exercise of power is reasonable.
That decision was never overturned.
However, Andrews said Marquez and Plank, who has since retired, essentially decided there is no fundamental constitutional right to keep and bear arms.
He said other cases are being researched.
In the judicial commission’s poll, judges and attorneys rated Marquez below his colleagues in some areas and higher in others.
His weaknesses included not always writing opinions that are clear and sometimes addressing issues that aren’t pertinent to the case. His strengths include his knowledge of the rules of evidence and procedure and making decisions without regard to criticism.
Staff writer Howard Pankratz can be reached at 303-820-1939 or hpankratz@denverpost.com.
