[420 Girl]

U.S. District Court Judge Phillip Brimmer has ruled in favor of conservative think-tank chief Jon Caldara, saying that the Colorado statute which barred citizen sponsored ballot-proposal sponsors from paying petition signature gatherers per signature was an unconstitutional violation of the First Amendment.

The law forbids petition circulators from receiving more than 20 percent of their pay on a per-signature basis. Caldara, and another plaintiff, marijuana proponent Mason Tvert, alleged that this statue was created to create barriers in the petition gathering process to eliminate ballot initiatives that were unpopular with elected officials. One example is the citizen-sponsored tax reform, TABOR.

Brimmer granted the plaintiff’s preliminary injunction request, and the plaintiffs are now free to pay petition circulators by the signature. Colorado House Speaker Terrance Carroll had previously called Caldara’s lawsuit “frivolous.”

The defendant, Secretary of State Bernie Buescher, has said that the law was created as a response to the alleged fraud in signature-gathering in 2008. Maurie Knaizer of the Colorado Attorney General’s office represented Buescher’s office.

Caldara sued, contending that HB09-1326 makes signature gathering more expensive and threatens an anti- health-care-reform initiative he’s trying to get on the November ballot. The complaint resulted in a three-day trial. Caldara sought an emergency suspension of the law. Well-known attorney David Lane of Killmer Lane & Newman represented Caldara.

Caldara, of the Independence Institute, is sponsoring a ballot initiative against federal health-care reform in Colorado. Tvert wishes to circulate a petition calling for a general election referendum on further loosening marijuana laws in Colorado.


NewsHawk: Ganjarden: 420 MAGAZINE
Source: Law Week Online
Contact: Law Week Online
Copyright: 2010 Law Week Online
Website: Brimmer Rules Colorado Signature Law is Unconstitutional

* Thanks to MedicalNeed for submitting this article


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