Well, what ho? What have we here?
Another state supreme court (much like Virginia's turned out to be) which *checks notes* followed state law in issuing a determination on the constitutionality of a Democratic scheme.
By George, sure looks like it.
BREAKING: The Colorado Supreme Court has unanimously blocked a Democratic-backed congressional redistricting proposal in Colorado that could have resulted in Democrats gaining three additional seats in the U.S. House. pic.twitter.com/BajCT0pA0y
— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) June 29, 2026
There were three separate redistricting initiatives proposed for the ballot, I guess, so voters could pick a favorite. But all the choices would have resulted in Democratic pick-ups after the districts were redrawn, and all three were the work of an organization with Hakeem Jeffries ties.
...All three initiatives were organized by a group called Coloradans for a Level Playing Field. One would have put the state’s independent redistricting commission, which voters approved in 2018, on hold and asked voters to approve a new congressional map for only the 2028 and 2030 election cycles. Another two proposed initiatives broke that goal into two separate parts: Pausing the commission and implementing new district lines.
If the measures had appeared on the ballot this November and voters had approved them, a new congressional map would have gone into effect starting in 2028 that would put Democrats in position to win seven of eight of the state’s congressional seats. Democrats currently hold four.
So Colorado's congressional districts would have gone from a 4-4 split to a 7-1 Dem advantage by virtue of a ballot measure.
But back in 2018, the voters of the state approved a constitutional amendment that took redistricting out of the legislature's hands, and gave it to a bipartisan committee. That group would be tasked with looking at redrawing districts every ten years, and that committee's work is, in fact, just getting underway.
The Colorado state supreme court got a look at these ballot proposals and said, 'that's not how any of this works.'
...“Changing the constitutionally mandated frequency of redistricting — however temporary the change — is not merely a mechanism to administer the new congressional district map,” Chief Justice Monica Marquez wrote in the court’s unanimous decision blocking Initiative 240. “Instead, it represents a seismic shift to Colorado’s longstanding redistricting process enshrined in the state constitution.”
Traditionally, redistricting has occurred once a decade following the U.S. census. But states across the country have adopted new congressional maps in recent months as part of an extraordinary off-cycle attempt — set off by President Donald Trump — to gain an edge in congressional contests. Republicans have gained more of an advantage from those efforts than Democrats.
In Colorado — an increasingly blue state — the efforts were complicated by the state’s independent redistricting commission, which voters created through amendments to the state constitution. The ballot measures creating the new system were the result of a bipartisan agreement aimed at preventing partisan gerrymandering.
Because redistricting power was taken away from the legislature, Colorado Democrats were unable to join the national redistricting fight without asking voters to amend the state constitution yet again.
The justices struck down the multiple measures as well for violating the Colorado Constitution's requirement for 'single subject.' Redistricting advocates were packing the ballot over the same issue.
...Three Dem-backed measures were shot down on Monday altogether, while two measures that would have given Republicans an edge were also rejected. The court ruled the ballot measures violated the state’s “constitutional single-subject requirement,” Colorado Politics reported.
The outlet continued:
The Supreme Court held that changing the state’s process for redistricting and approving new maps, either together or through separate interlocking initiatives, violated the Colorado Constitution.
“To conclude otherwise and to allow initiative proponents to proceed with interlocking measures like those at issue here would allow proponents to achieve indirectly what they could not achieve directly and would endorse an end run around the single subject requirement. This we cannot do,” wrote Justice Richard L. Gabriel
Naturally, the losing side took Republicans to task for filing the lawsuit that cost them all this money and destroyed their chance to wangle those additional seats in a couple of years.
...Coloradans for a Level Playing Field had already spent more than $2 million through June 10 on legal fees and signature gathering with the hopes that the measures would be allowed to proceed by the Colorado Supreme Court.
The group said it had gathered tens of thousands of voter signatures to get their measures on the November ballot. (They needed about 125,000 per measure.)
But Republicans challenged the measures in court, leading to Monday’s decision.
“The success of this partisan attempt to sideline Coloradans from responding to Donald Trump’s unprecedented mid-decade redistricting scheme is disappointing,” Curtis Hubbard, a spokesperson for Coloradans for a Level Playing Field, said in a written statement. “While Trump and his MAGA allies regularly sidestep the law and ignore voters, efforts to respond have once again been dealt a legal setback over a technicality.”
Hubbard said with Colorado unable to join the redistricting fight, Republicans are set to net up to 11 seats in Congress.
It’s too late for Coloradans for a Level Playing Field to bring new measures for the Novemeber election.
It also stings severely because the Republican ballot measure to ask voters to approve a requirement that the state Supreme Court and redistricting commission review any congressional maps redrawn outside the commission process passed constitutional muster and will be on the ballot should they gather the requisite number of signatures.
WAAH
...Republicans responded to Coloradans for a Level Playing Field with Colorado ballot measures of their own that would require the Colorado Supreme Court and the state’s independent congressional redistricting commission to review any congressional maps in Colorado redrawn outside of the independent redistricting process.
Those measures, backed by Advance Colorado, have been approved for signature gathering and may still appear on the November ballot.
It's been kind of interesting that a fair number of these hasty pudding Democratic attempts to draw lines have been such shoddy work that their own blue state supreme courts are shooting them down.
I'm delighted there's still some integrity left somewhere in deep blue land.
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