Monday in Denver: Ralph Ogden to challenge Amendment 71 as unconstitutional

 

 

You're invited to strike a win for the people Monday at a press conference sponsored by the Colorado Foundation for Universal Health Care.

Amendment 71  made it more difficult to pass an Amendment in Colorado--unless you are wealthy.  Attorneys Ralph Ogden and Timms Fowler know that's not the way democracy works, so they will file a challenge to the constitutionality of A71 at 10 a.m. Monday, April 24. 

Amendment 71, passed in 2016 following a misleading campaign, requires citizens who want to pass a Colorado constitutional amendment to gather a difficult-to-obtain quota of signatures from each of 35 senate districts and also win 55% of the vote.

That's so expensive as to be almost impossible for grassroots groups. 

It's also unconstitutional.

Speakers from the Colorado Foundation for Universal Health care and other supporters will defend Colorado's direct democracy route, the citizens initiative, from the unconstitutional limits of Amendment 71. They'll outline why the attorneys will challenge Amendment 71 in Federal court.

Ogden is a long-time proponent for universal health care who helped write Amendment 69.  He serves on the board of the Colorado Foundation for Universal Health Care. 

In addition to arguing over 200 appeals in state and federal courts before his semi-retirement in 2012, Ogden  successfully represented Becky Brinkman and Margaret Burd in Brinkman v. Long, the Adams County, Colorado, same-gender marriage case which resulted in a judicial declaration that Colorado's ban on same gender marriages violated the Fourteenth Amendment.