State Supreme Court declines to review case
The Colorado Supreme Court has declined to review a defamation lawsuit that former Boulder City Council candidate Steven Rosenblum filed against local political activists, including Eric Budd.
The decision means the case may be headed to trial.
Rosenblum originally filed the lawsuit in Boulder District Court claiming that Budd and several other political organizers had launched an “orchestrated smear campaign” to destroy his reputation during his unsuccessful bid for City Council in the fall of 2021.
The former candidate claimed that Budd had defamed him and misappropriated his likeness by creating a fake social media account under Rosenblum’s name and using it to share a link to the Safer Leaks blog.
The blog contains critical statements about Rosenblum as well as other members of the Safer Boulder group, which has advocated for Boulder to fully enforce its camping ban and increase police presence in the city.
At the time, the blog falsely attributed a series of Reddit posts to Rosenblum, but the inaccurate statements have since been removed.
Attorneys representing the organizers filed a special motion in November 2021 to dismiss the case based on a 2019 Colorado law targeting strategic lawsuits against public participation, or SLAPP suits. The attorneys argued the lawsuit was aimed at silencing legitimate political speech from people who opposed Rosenblum’s run for office.
After a Boulder District Court judge denied the special motion in February 2022, the defendants appealed the decision to the Colorado Court of Appeals.
On reviewing the case, Judge Terry Fox ruled in August that Rosenblum’s misappropriation and defamation claims against Budd had a reasonable likelihood of succeeding in trial, but his civil conspiracy claims against the other organizers did not. All defendants except for Budd were dismissed.
Fox wrote that because Budd had “reason to know” the link to the blog contained false information, Rosenblum could potentially argue in court that Budd acted with “actual malice,” a key criterion for proving defamation.
In October, Budd petitioned the Colorado Supreme Court for a writ of certiorari, which asked for a review of the Court of Appeals decision and called Rosenblum’s original lawsuit a “brazen attack on Mr. Budd’s First Amendment rights and the political process.” The petition also disputed that some of the claims against Budd could succeed in trial.
However, on Monday, the state Supreme Court denied Budd’s petition, effectively saying the court will not review the case.
Budd declined to comment on the decision.
Stan Garnett, the former Boulder district attorney who is representing Rosenblum, told the Daily Camera he and his client were “very pleased” with the Supreme Court decision.
“The Court of Appeals opinion was very strong with regard to Mr. Budd, and that’s who Steve (Rosenblum) will be pursuing in the trial court,” he said. “It’s possible it will resolve. We need to see. But we need to do discovery and get the case set for trial, and Steve looks forward to a public hearing of what happened in the case.”
Garnett said although he and Budd’s attorney have been in talks about a “possible resolution,” he believes the case will likely go to trial.