Building a Firewall for Freedom at the capitol

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By Anaya Robison, Director of Public Policy

As the Trump administration continues to dismantle rights at the federal level, it is more important than ever for state governments to stand for what is right. State legislators and city governments have the duty to safeguard our rights and create a firewall for freedom. To date, seven state legislatures across the country have passed laws to protect our rights. In Colorado, we have seen Denver Mayor Mike Johnston defending sanctuary city policies in the U.S. Congress.

The ACLU of Colorado worked tirelessly this legislative session to support and pass policies that will enshrine civil rights and liberties for all Coloradans, and protect our most vulnerable community members. We are excited to share the progress we have already made.

Under previous policy, existing legal protections prohibiting the use of facial recognition services in schools were set to expire this July. With the support of the ACLU of Colorado and our partners, we have successfully passed a new bill, SB25-143, that renews portions of the existing law and expands its protections.

Under this new law, schools in Colorado are prohibited from processing biometric identifiers obtained from any facial recognition service used for curriculum without consent. Now, each school district in Colorado is required to develop a policy governing the use, access and oversight of facial recognition technology. Going forward, courts will be authorized to issue restraining orders and injunctions against any school, or its employees or contractors, who violate the bill.

At the federal level, basic voting rights protections are being actively dismantled, making it more important than ever for state governments to enshrine voting rights. This session, our legislature passed SB25-001, the Colorado Voting Rights Act, with the support of the ACLU of Colorado.

This new law regulates elections that are administered in the state. It expands access to voter registration for Indian tribal members, the distribution of election and voting notices in facilities serving individuals with disabilities, and election-related language access, among other modifications to existing election statutes.

This bill also has several provisions to prohibit political groups from encouraging voter intimidation, or otherwise limiting voting access for Coloradans. The bill prohibits any future actions that could result in limiting voting access to, or dilute the vote of, any protected classes. The bill also prohibits the implementation of any voting qualification related to an individual’s gender or sexual orientation, and also prohibits the creation of new qualifications related to an individual’s confinement in a jail.

This session, the Colorado legislature has also passed a bill concerning contempt of court for failure to appear charges in municipal court. Under this new bill, any person who fails to appear at a scheduled court date can no longer be charged with a municipal crime for doing so. Missed court dates are often the product of circumstance and poverty, rather than choice. The bill adds that the state law cannot be superseded by any city-level charters or ordinances.

HB25-1146 originally proposed to increase the number of beds for pre-trial youth detention across the state by a large margin. Through work with our coalition partners, the ACLU of Colorado was able to negotiate with the bill’s proponents to shift that intent. The bill that was passed ended up increasing only emergency beds by 17, while leaving the statutory number of youth detention beds at 215. The bill also created a pre-arrest deflection grant program for youth, funded a pilot for body worn cameras in youth detention and commitment facilities, and appropriated money for a statewide survey to look at why kids who are awaiting placements and services to be released from detention are waiting so long and recommend solutions.

Late this spring, a critical immigration bill was passed by the Colorado state legislature. This bill will change the way that civil rights of immigrants are protected in the state in order to prevent discriminatory behaviors that are based on a person’s immigration status. There are ten major changes created by this bill:

1. Under current state law, a person without lawful immigration status was required to submit an affidavit stating that they have applied for lawful presence, or else will apply as soon as they are eligible, any time they applied for in-state student tuition or for identification documents like licenses. This new bill repeals these affidavit requirements.
2. This bill also changes how immigration enforcement happens in jails. Under current law, a jail custodian is required to release a defendant within 6 hours of a defendant being granted a personal recognizance bond. The new bill would prohibit any delays to a defendant’s release for the purpose of fulfilling an immigration enforcement operation.
3. Current law allows criminal defendants to petition a court to vacate a guilty plea to a class 1 or 2 misdemeanor if the defendant alleges that they were not adequately advised of immigration-related consequences of their plea; if they did not knowingly or voluntarily waive the right to counsel; or if the plea was otherwise constitutionally infirm. Under the new bill, these rights are extended to class 3 misdemeanors, traffic offenses, and petty offenses.
4. The new bill will create minimum requirements related to facility access rights to public facilities like childcare centers, schools, libraries, and health care facilities.
5. Current laws prohibiting probation officers and department employees from providing personal information about an individual to federal immigration authorities will be expanded to include pretrial officers and pretrial service employees.
6. Unless required by federal warrant, or in order to transfer an inmate, it will be prohibited to grant any federal immigration authorities access to any part of a detention facility that is not generally accessible to the public.
7. Current laws that limit governmental entities from contracting to detail an individual for federal civil immigration purposes will be expanded.
8. The bill will prohibit another state’s military force from entering the state without the governor’s permission.
9. The way that precise geolocation data and other personal data is collected and managed as per the “Colorado Privacy Act” has been amended.
10. A current law states that a person cannot be subject to civil arrest while at court, or traveling to or from a court proceeding. The new bill will extend this protection to times that a person is receiving treatment in any facility that offers programs or services related to a court proceeding.