May, Groff Disappointed Court Didn't Rule On A41; Romanoff Says Court Had No Choice

House Minority Leader Mike May (R-Parker) said Monday that the state Supreme Court "punted" on Monday's Amendment 41 ruling, adding that sending the case back to a lower court will only continue state employees' confusion about state gift laws.

Senate President Peter Groff (D-Denver) also said in a statement that he was "disappointed," but House Majority Leader Andrew Romanoff (D-Denver) said the ruling would help preserve clean government and said the Supreme Court wasn't able to rule on the case today.

Although most legislators agree on strict gift laws, May said, the Court's decision to sent the case back to district court without ruling whether the amendment itself was constitutional keeps lawmakers from enacting what he called "the spirit" of Amendment 41.

This year's session may be over by the time the case goes through district court again back up to the Supreme Court, he said.

In that case, May said, "We can't do anything now until next year."

In the meantime, May said, legislators and state employees are confused about what they can or can't do.

 "No one wants to get tripped up in the particulars of the rules," May said. "If I'm going about my business as a legislator and doing my job, what are the rules? That's all I want to know."

May said he expects guidelines about legislative gifts will be distributed to lawmakers within a couple days.

Legislators passed Senate Bill 210 last year to provide guidelines, and if the Supreme Court eventually rules Amendment 41 is unconstitutional, May said lawmakers can simply re-enact those laws again.

"If we can take 41 as it is, and the implementing laws - the law that we wrote last year - we can have some reasonable guidelines for legislators and state employees," May said.

May pointed out the legislators asked the Supreme Court last year for a ruling on Amendment 41's constitutionality, but he said they never heard back.

"The Supreme Court is 0-for-2 on this one -- just answer the question," May said.

Groff shared May's frustration.

In a statement, the Senate President said, "I respect the ruling of our state's highest court, though I am disappointed that we are back where we started."

Groff added, though, that the ethics commission created under SB 210 "may now begin to answer some of the questions that surround the ambiguity of Amendment 41."

Romanoff said the Supreme Court couldn't act because the case wasn't "ripe," as the justices ruled the plaintiffs couldn't argue the constitutionality of Amendment 41 until an ethics commission was in place.

Colorado's government is one of the cleanest in the country, and I think today's decision helps keep it that way," Romanoff said.  "I told the House of Representatives (today) when Amendment 41 was enjoined that they ought to behave as if it were still in effect.

"And if they did," he said, "then they have nothing to change."