The Colorado State Supreme Court announced today that in a 4-1 decision, Amendment 54 was in violation of the First Amendment, and therefore should be removed from the Colorado Constitution.

The ruling said quote: “The supreme court holds that provisions of Amendment 54 are unconstitutionally overbroad, vague, and violate equal protection. After striking the unconstitutional portions of Amendment 54, the supreme court holds that the remaining provisions do not constitute a meaningful legislative enactment, and therefore the entire Amendment must be purged from the Colorado Constitution.”
This ruling affirmed the trial court’s preliminary injunction. Justice Rice delivered the Opinion of the Court, while Justice Martinez dissented and Justice Coats and Eid did not participate.

SDA contributed to the legal opposition to Amendment 54.

The summary of Amendment 54, which appeared on the ballot in November 2008, outlined the general intent of the language, which was actually an amendment to Article XXVIII of the Colorado constitution, governing campaign and political contributions. The ballot title is quoted here:

“Shall there be an amendment to the Colorado constitution concerning restrictions on campaign contributions, and in connection therewith, prohibiting the holder of contracts totaling $100,000 or more, as indexed for inflation, awarded by state or local governments without competitive bidding (“sole source government contracts”), including certain collective bargaining agreements, from making a contribution for the benefit of a political party or candidate for elective office during the term of the contracts and for 2 years thereafter; disqualifying a person who makes a contribution in a ballot issue election from entering into a sole source government contract related to the ballot issue; and imposing liability and penalties on contract holders, certain of their owners, officers and directors, and government officials for violations of the amendment?”

The two basic mandates of Amendment 54 were:
1.) CANDIDATE BAN: Holders of sole source government contracts must agree, in specific language included in the contract, not to make a contribution that will benefit any candidate for elective office or any political party during the term of contract plus two years.

• This ban affects the contracting entity and persons who own at least 10% of the contracting entity and any director, officer or trustee of the contracting entity.
• This ban also affects family members of those banned above.

2.) BALLOT ISSUE BAN: A person who makes a contribution to promote or influence the result of a ballot issue may not enter into any sole source contract relating to that ballot issue.

If you would like to see a full copy of the Supreme Court’s opinion, please click here. Please note that the opinion is 86 pages long.