how judges get retained
Hon. Judge Douglas Walker (retired- 22nd Judicial District) conducting a swearing in ceremony for former District Attorney William Y. Furse, now District Court Judge William Y. Furse- current 22nd Judicial District Judge. Photo taken from durangoherald.com.
https://www.durangoherald.com/articles/furse-appointed-judge-for-22nd-judicial-district-court/
do colorado citizens get to have any input into the judge that oversees their districts and counties?
Colorado Citizens have no say in who gets selected to be a judge but they do have one say, after four years of a judge being on the bench, on whether or not that Judge should stay in office and that is through the Judicial Retention Process. As you likely know, there are judges on our voting ballots each year and we vote to retain or not retain them. Retain means they get to keep being a judge. A vote to not retain tells the Governor you don’t approve of his choice and you want someone else.
Often, the only time a citizen learns anything about a Judge is through the reports in the Colorado Election Blue Books that are published and disseminated prior to an election. The report in there is the product of your District’s Judicial Performance Commission’s investigation into the judge’s performance if they are up for retention vote. Those Commissions are required to submit those recommendations prior to the election cycle each year. If you forgot what the Blue Books are, here is a link to the one from 2024: https://leg.colorado.gov/publications/2024-blue-book-english
How do we know how a judge is doing and whether they should be retained?
Colorado has created Judicial Performance Commissions. These are commissions that review the acts of a judicial officer and then make recommendations on whether or not a Judge should be retained. Unlike Judicial Nominating Commissions, Judicial Performance Commissions are not created by the Colorado Constitution. Rather, they are a legislative creation. The requisite statute can be found at C.R.S. 13-5.5-101, et. seq.
HOW DO COMMISSION MEMBERS GET SELECTED?
Each District Commission is required to be filled with ten (10) local citizens, including four attorneys and six non-attorneys. There are currently 23 districts, meaning there should be a total of 230 Judicial Performance Commissioners through out the State.
The positions are selected by appointments to the commission from the following individuals:
The Colorado Speaker of the House of Representatives (allowed to nominate one attorney and one non-attorney)
The Colorado Minority Leader of the House of Representatives (allowed to nominate one non-attorney)
The Colorado President of the Senate (allowed to nominate one attorney and one non-attorney)
The Colorado Minority Leader of the Senate (allowed to nominate one non-attorney)
The Colorado Chief Justice of the Supreme Court (allowed to nominate two attorneys)
The Colorado Governor (allowed to nominate two non-attorneys).you have a creative project to share with the world. Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.
what do commission members actually do?
Commission members are appointed for a term of four years. They may legally serve two terms and then are removed.
When a judge is up for retention vote, the Commission is called to action. They are required to follow specific rules outlined here!
The Commission uses judicial surveys filled out by attorneys and parties who have interacted with the judge in the period leading up to the retention vote.
They also do court watching, review appellate decision, review the court’s rulings, do interviews and they are supposed to accept feedback from the public, if the public knows that they are meeting.
For more information on the process, there is a handy infographic at the Colorado Office of Judicial Performance’s website that you can review here!
Who makes up the 22nd judicial district judicial performance commission?
There are no current vacancies on the 22nd Judicial District Judicial Performance Commission.
The Current Commission, as reported by the Colorado Office of Judicial Performance is at the left of this text.
Image from: https://judicialperformance.colorado.gov/district-commission-rosters