Using computers to speed-read bills was unconstitutional, state’s high court rules
Republicans sued Dem leadership for 2019 actions
The Democrats who run the Colorado legislature were wrong to use speedreading computers to combat the GOP’s attempt to delay liberal legislation, the Colorado Supreme Court ruled Monday.
In a 4-3 decision issued two years to the week since unintelligible speedreading debuted on the state Senate floor, the high court said that the use of computer programs in that case was unconstitutional.
“There are unquestionably different ways by which the legislature may comply with the (bill) reading requirement,” the court stated. “But the cacophony generated by the computers here isn’t one of them.”
The ruling confirms a previous ruling at the district court level. It’s a win for Republicans, who sued Senate Democratic leadership.
A common stall tactic at the legislature is to request that a bill be read at length — as in every word, in order, out loud. Republicans were facing a deluge of big-ticket liberal bills in early 2019, including one that proposed to abolish the death penalty, and Assistant Minority Leader John Cooke, a Weld County Republican, asked that a 2,203-page bill be read at length.
Rather than let that happen and suck up many hours of the session, Democrats had the bill read through a computer program at an unintelligible speed.
Sage Naumann, spokesman for the Colorado Senate GOP, said in a statement that the party is “grateful that the Colorado Supreme Court sided with us in ruling that what occurred on March 11th, 2019, was not constitutional.”
He added: “We stand ready to work with the majority to establish clear, constitutional guidelines for the reading of bills on the floor moving into the future.”
In a dissenting opinion, Justice Monica Márquez wrote, “In my view, the plain language of (the state Constitution) simply requires that bills be ‘read,’ or uttered aloud.
Nothing more.”
Senate President Leroy Garcia, a Pueblo Democrat, said the party is “obviously disappointed and disagree with the Supreme Court’s ruling, but we certainly intend to honor it.”
He also noted that “though we’ve sadly seen our fair share of wrenchthrowing, I am encouraged by how far we’ve come over the last few years.”
“Bipartisan collaboration has only gotten stronger through the hardship we have faced, and I am confident that we will continue to work together on behalf of all Coloradans — leaving the need for such methods behind,” he said.