LAW WEEK COLORADO

DENVER — Congress passed the health care reform bill in March, but Colorado lawyers are still sorting out the legal ramifications of the new law. Colorado’s AG John Suthers joined his counterparts from a number of other states in a lawsuit challenging the implementation of the reform.

The ACLU of Colorado presented a debate at CU Law last month on the merits of the lawsuit. The full video of the debate can be viewed here. Dave Kopel, an attorney and research director at the Independence Institute, supported the lawsuit, while Jean Dubofsky, a former Colorado Supreme Court justice, while Dubofsky questioned Suthers’ standing to sue the federal government. Attorney Judd Golden of ACLU’s Boulder chapter moderated.

Health care reform will be approached from a different angle in an all-star panel discussion, “Mandatory Health Insurance: Is It Constitutional,” Thurs., May 13 at 6:00 p.m. at the Denver office of Kutak Rock.

The event, which is free to attend and nets two CLE credit hours, will again feature Dubofsky, along with Larry Naves, arbiter with JAG and former Denver District Court chief judge, Simon Lazarus, public policy counsel at the National Senior Citizens Law Center, and Richard Westfall, partner at Hale-Westfall and former Colorado solicitor general. The presentation is sponsored by the local chapter of the American Constitution Society.

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​The American Civil Liberties Union has filed a federal lawsuit against the Jefferson County Sheriff, accusing him of illegally detaining a man for 47 days for the suspicion that he was an illegal immigrant, Westword reports.

Sheriff Ted Mink, the group says, kept Luis Quezada in Jefferson County jail in the summer of 2009 without any official charges after he was booked for failure to appear in court on a traffic violation.

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By Alicia McNally, LAW WEEK COLORADO
DENVER — The American Civil Liberties Union of Colorado today announced C. Ray Drew as its new executive director.
Prior to joining the organization, Drew worked in the nonprofit sector in South Carolina and California, and also as a political consultant in California. His duties as executive director include fundraising, leading ACLU Colorado’s seven-person staff and representing the organization in the legislature. He will also be involved with the organization’s legal program.
Drew will replace Bruce Sattler, who acted as temporary executive director since July 2009. Sattler said
Drew was chosen because of “the depth of his experience in nonprofits, his passion for social justice and ability to be an effective fundraiser.”
Sattler is a former employment and trial lawyer from Denver firms Holland & Hart (20 years) and Faegre & Benson (15 years). He said he will “re-retire” once Drew takes over.
“It’s been fascinating. I’ve been associated with the organization for years,” Sattler said about his time at the ACLU. “In fact, next month is the 40th anniversary of my first ACLU case,” which involved a Chicano student who was expelled from Denver’s North High School.

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LAW WEEK COLORADO
Statewide courts reporter Ali McNally rounds up today’s court news.

David Kaplan, defense attorney for Mark Strodtman, said the home builder accused of mortgage fraud was just responsible for banging nails and putting up drywall. The closing arguments were yesterday afternoon.

Houston-based Patterson-UTI Drilling Co. has been ordered to turn over its personnel records as part of an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission investigation for alleged racial discrimination against minority workers.

Wanda Eileen Barzee admitted her role in helping her husband keep Elizabeth Smart captured and enslaved for nine months, and as sentenced yesterday to 15 years in federal prison.

Jurors are deciding the case of Fort Carson soldier Jomar Falu-Vives, who is accused of killing two people in a drive-by shooting.

The American Civil Liberties Union and its Colorado chapter will be in court Wednesday to present arguments in a lawsuit challenging the exclusion of two Denver residents from a public speech by President Bush in March 2005.

The first phase of an evaporative-wastewater facility southeast of De Beque was unanimously approved yesterday by the Mesa County Commission.

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It says its unnamed client was only carrying a guitar, not panhandling, and that even if he was asking for donations, that is protected speech under the First Amendment, the Associated Press reports.

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