DENVER—A Colorado judge on Tuesday temporarily blocked a new state constitutional amendment that bans some government contractors and all public unions from making political contributions.
District Court Judge Catherine Lemon said she thought Amendment 54—approved by 51 percent of voters in November—violated the free speech rights of unions. Her ruling however isn’t the final say on the measure.
The state attorney general’s office could decide to appeal the ruling to the Colorado Supreme Court and a full trial on the merits of the law could follow any appeal. The group behind the measure—Clean Government Colorado—could also try to intervene if the state decides not to appeal.
The amendment, promoted as a means to fight corruption, bars anyone tied to businesses that hold at least $100,000 in no-bid government contracts from making contributions to political candidates.
It also bars all unions that negotiate collective bargaining for government workers from making campaign contributions.
It was challenged in court by unions as well as nonprofit groups, including the University of Denver and The Children’s Hospital, and philanthropist Dan Ritchie, the head of the Denver Center for the Performing Arts.
Ritchie and the non-profits said the amendment unfairly banned board members from making contributions even though the members didn’t negotiate no-bid contracts with the government for things like school nursing services or property leases.
Attorney Jean Dubofsky, who was representing Ritchie and the non-profits, argued that the amendment was too broad, saying that other states with such “pay to play” laws had only limited contributions to candidates who would have the power to award such contracts.
“This was legal duct tape for unions, businesses and non-profits,” Mark Grueskin, an attorney representing teacher and firefigher unions, said after the ruling. “This was all about telling special interests to be quiet about politics.”
Colorado Deputy Attorney General Maurice Knaizer argued that the law needed to ban contributions to all candidates to prevent people from indirectly influencing the government through another lawmaker.
He also said that government can limit the political involvement of its workers who depend on the government for their living.
Lemon, who commented several times on the law’s confusing language, said business owners and nonprofit owners could retain their right to contribute by simply refusing to contract with the government.
But she said the amendment discriminates against public unions with an outright ban on political contributions.
“By my lights, that can’t be anything other than a content based restriction on their First Amendment rights,” she said.
