Lawyers Agree Limits are Needed
Email from retired lawyer, Jefferson County 6/19/06
I am very interested in this issue. I practiced for 31 years and I am totally against career judges. No matter how good their
intentions, after a few years 95% of them are lazy, arrogant, and disinterested in the cases before them. My belief is four
years and then go back to work. If I can help, let me know.
Trial lawyer's email 7/14/06
I am an attorney who holds strong convictions supporting term limits for judges. Please let me know if there is anything I
can do to help the cause. [While not covered in this amendment,] the problem with trial court judges is even more serious
than appellate court judges. The system of re-election has been an embarrassment. Essentially no trial court judge fears not
being re-elected and no trial attorney is willing to expose an abusive trial court judge, for obvious reasons.
Email from an experienced lawyer 7/15/06
Have you seen the materials which the Colorado Bar Association is distributing to its membership in opposition to the term
limitation proposal? Take a look at their July 13 email, shown below. In addition, a mass-mailing letter was addressed to all
members in which the CBA specifically outlined its campaign against the proposal. At what point is the bar in jeopardy of
losing its tax-exempt status?
*** Say No to Term Limits for Appellate Judges
You already may know that a proposal to term limit Colorado’s appellate judges will likely be on the ballot in November. The
CBA Board of Governors decided unanimously to lead the charge to defeat the proposed ballot initiative, which is a retroactive
Constitutional amendment that will wipe out in one fell swoop approximately 185 years of skilled judging. Check your mailboxes
for a letter detailing the reasons the initiative is a bad idea and what the CBA is doing to fight the initiative. Learn more
and get involved in the fight at www.cobar.org/cpcc.
Postal mail from a younger attorney 7/15/06
Enclosed is my paper copy of the Bar Association mass mailing dated July 10 -- more shenanigans from the opponents of judicial
term limits. I suppose that a bunch of lawyers opposing the initiative is a positive thing for you from a PR standpoint. But
this direct advocacy seems hard to justify for a non-profit. Keep up the great work.
Senior attorney quitting CBA in protest, email 7/18/06
I have been a member of the Colorado Bar Association (CBA) for almost half a century, as was my grandfather before me. But
recently the CBA Board of Governors has come out against the judges term limits amendment, against the marriage amendment and
in favor of the same sex benefits amendment. I am in favor of the first two, and opposed to the last one. Accordingly, the
CBA (without consulting its members) has adopted positions that are the exact opposite from my own.
The CBA has appropriated $250,000 to defeat the term limits initiative. Whether it is spending money on the other two
(marriage, and same sex) I do not know. A year ago it supported Referendum C with its endorsement and also appropriated funds
to boot.
I believe the CBA has done, and is doing, many worthwhile things. Nevertheless since it has morphed into a political action
group that uses its members resources for positions that generally not in accord with my own, I have decided to let my
membership in the CBA expire. There is a matter of trust involved. The CBA, as an association of attorneys, should not
involve itself in issues that are controversial and do not have a nexus with the professional concerns of attorneys, qua
attorneys. The leadership holds the resources of the association in trust for the benefit of its members, and not for the
personal political whims of its officers and directors. You can imagine the outcry if an executor of an estate or the trustee
of a trust helped himself to estate or trust assets to advance the executor's or the trustee's own personal political views.
The American Bar Association (to which I formerly belonged) lost not only members but credibility as a professional
association when it endorsed the legitimacy of abortion about a decade ago. I believe a similar fate could befall the CBA
once its leftward agenda becomes more widely known.
You already may know that a proposal to term limit Colorado’s appellate judges will likely be on the ballot in November. The CBA Board of Governors decided unanimously to lead the charge to defeat the proposed ballot initiative, which is a retroactive Constitutional amendment that will wipe out in one fell swoop approximately 185 years of skilled judging. Check your mailboxes for a letter detailing the reasons the initiative is a bad idea and what the CBA is doing to fight the initiative. Learn more and get involved in the fight at www.cobar.org/cpcc.
