An informational and educational resource for the Colorado General Assembly by the Office of Legislative Legal Services.
by Julie Pelegrin
There’s an old saying: “You can’t play the game if you don’t know the rules.” Although the legislative session is not a game, a legislator who doesn’t know the legislative rules has a difficult time accomplishing his or her legislative goals. (more…)
by Julie Pelegrin
As originally adopted, section 1 of article V of the Colorado constitution gave all of the legislative power to the General Assembly. During the Progressive Era, however, a group called the Colorado Direct Legislation League advocated for an amendment to the constitution to reserve to the people the power of initiative and referendum — law-making powers that the voters of Colorado exercise directly rather than through their elected representatives. In a special legislative session in 1910, the General Assembly referred a constitutional amendment to the ballot, which amendment passed in the 1910 general election, establishing the powers of initiative and referendum. (more…)
by Julie Pelegrin
You hear it all the time, “The General Assembly has plenary power.” But what does that mean? Can the General Assembly really enact any law that it thinks is necessary? Are there limits on what the General Assembly can do? And, if there are, what are those limits and who decides when they’ve been violated? (more…)
by Julie Pelegrin
Last December, Judge Sheila Rappaport, Denver District Court found the “Public School Finance Act of 1994” (PSFA), article 54 of title 22 of the Colorado Revised Statutes, unconstitutional in the case of Lobato v. Colorado (“Lobato”). In a nutshell, Judge Rappaport found that the school finance system is not rationally related to the General Assembly’s constitutional duty to establish and maintain a thorough and uniform statewide public school system because the PSFA is not based on the actual cost of educating students to achieve statewide standards and the system of funding public schools significantly underfunds those costs. For the OLLS memorandum describing the trial court’s decision, click here. (more…)
by Brita Darling
On June 28, 2012, the United States Supreme Court ruled on objections to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) in National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius (567 U.S. ___ (2012)), or NFIB v. Sebelius. The majority opinion upheld the ACA, including the provisions relating to the creation of health insurance exchanges and the individual mandate to obtain insurance coverage, as well as the Medicaid expansion provisions. (more…)