Civil Rights & Criminal Law

HATE CRIMES EDUCATION PROGRAM

Since 1993, Colorado Lawyers Committee volunteers have presented an educational program on Colorado’s Hate/Bias-Motivated Crimes Statute. Using a fictional trial format, the program empowers student participants to explore how they can prevent the severe harm caused by hateful slurs and biased actions. At the conclusion of the trial, the students divide into small groups and act as jurors to discuss the issues presented and, with the assistance of an adult facilitator, reach a verdict. The students become very engaged in discussing diversity in their community, and the value of preventing the spread of racial slurs and hateful actions.

TAYLOR RANCH LITIGATION

The Taylor Ranch litigation (Lobato v. Taylor) involves the right of landowners in the San Luis Valley to access a 77,500-acre mountainous parcel known as the Taylor Ranch. This right was created in the mid-1800’s when settlers on the Sangre de Cristo Land Grant, then a part of Mexico, were promised access to the mountainous regions near their homes for uses necessary for their survival. More than 100 years later, Jack Taylor purchased and fenced off the land.

The Lawyers Committee has been active in this litigation for the past 20 years and has successfully obtained rights for landowners entitled to access the property (after a 2003 decision by the Colorado Supreme Court upheld the rights of plaintiff property owners). To date, the District Court has examined title to thousands of parcels of land and found that all but a few parcels are entitled to access Taylor Ranch.

In 2016, the team successfully challenged an attempt by the owners of Taylor Ranch to cut off yet-to-be-identified landowners’ rights through notice by publication and persuaded the Court to certify its prior rulings as final, while leaving the case open for any future landowners to make access claims. In 2018, the ranch owner filed an appeal (the third time the case was before the Colorado Court of Appeals). The Court issued a 90-page opinion rejecting the ranch owner’s efforts to limit the rights of the landowners and remanded the case back to the trial court to finish identifying landowners with rights.

In 2020, a group of five volunteers from Ballard Spahr LLP agreed to join the Taylor Ranch team to address the ranch owner’s recent egregious behavior toward the landowners. The team filed a motion to stop the ranch owner from intimidating the landowners by excessively tracking them, interrogating them, and treating them like trespassers. The team also challenged the ranch owner’s fencing that significantly limits the landowners’ access to the property. The landowners are seeking several remedies to prevent the ranch owner’s use of harassment and unreasonable interference with the landowner’s easement. These remedies include removing the electrical fence, prohibiting excessive surveillance, disallowing the use of guard dogs, and implementing new procedures that will increase access to the property. In late 2021, several lawyers from Sherman & Howard L.L.C. agreed to represent several individual landowners in actions by the ranch owner that could impact their individual rights and the easement rights established over more than 40 years.

RACIAL JUSTICE TASK FORCE

In response to recent events in our country, including the tragic deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery and so many more, the Colorado Lawyers Committee formed the Racial Justice Task Force in the Summer of 2020, in order to reassess our internal and external racial justice practices. The Racial Justice Task Force initially formed three subcommittees (Advocacy, Training and Internal), but were subsequently consolidated in early 2022. In 2021, the Task Force joined with the CLC Young Lawyers Division to hold a highly successful Racial Justice Summit in September on the topic of racism in the criminal justice system. The Second Annual Racial Justice Summit, on racial justice and voting rights, is scheduled for September 2022. In addition, the Task Force has worked to strengthen the relationship between the CLC and the individual specialty bars, as well as the relationship between the CLC and the diverse student organizations at both law schools. The Task Force recently created a “best practices” survey which will help all CLC contributing law firms assess their EDI efforts and encourage them to consider implementing additional EDI practices.

CRIMINAL JUSTICE TASK FORCE

This Task Force was created in early 2021 to explore racial inequities in the criminal justice system. The Task Force’s initial focus is on inappropriate sharing of information by school districts with local district attorneys.

ELECTION TASK FORCE

The goal of the Election Task Force is to monitor the election process and work to ensure access to the polls in Colorado’s elections. This bipartisan coalition of volunteers has worked closely with the Colorado Secretary of State, the Republican and Democratic parties, the specialty bar associations, and other key constituencies to assure collaborative solutions to election issues and changes to the law. While election procedures seem to have become an increasingly partisan issue in recent years, this bipartisan coalition continues to focus on access to the polls. Most recently, when one Colorado county cancelled a contract with a voting machine vendor, the Task Force reached out to county officials to remind them of their legal obligation to provide private and secure voting opportunities for all voters, including those with disabilities

NONPARTISAN ELECTION CALL CENTER

For 18 years, the Colorado Lawyers Committee has been an active participant in a coalition (Just Vote! Election Protection Colorado) which sponsors a Nonpartisan Election Call Center. In 2020, the Call Center was held in a hotel ballroom to honor pandemic constraints. In 2022, Lawyers Committee volunteers received training, coordinated the call center, and answered calls from voters on Election Day and the day before Election Day. Volunteers responded to questions from Colorado voters related to registration, voting procedures, polling places, mail ballots, and similar issues. The other Just Vote! partners are Colorado Common Cause, the League of Women Voters of Colorado, Disability Law Colorado, and Mi Familia Vota.