Colorado’s Local Governments Now Have the Ability to Sue the State Over its Bad Decisions

In a major victory for local governments, the Colorado Supreme Court has abolished a decades-old rule that restricted their ability to sue the state over decisions they deemed harmful to their communities.

This landmark ruling will hold state agencies accountable and give a powerful tool to municipalities and counties across the state.

The decision, announced on Monday, comes after two separate cases in which local governments challenged state orders that they believed were detrimental to their jurisdictions. In one case, the Adams County School District 14 fought against a state board of education order to reorganize their district. In the other, Weld County challenged new air quality regulations that they estimated would force 35% of oil and gas operators to shut down.

The state had previously argued that allowing local governments to sue over state decisions would cause chaos and interfere with the efficiency of government processes. But Justice Carlos A. Samour Jr. questioned whether this was truly the best system and if it was necessary to have state agencies serving as the "prosecutor, the judge, and the appellate body" without any oversight from the courts.

The Supreme Court, led by Justice Monica M. Márquez, recognized the confusion and harm caused by the outdated "Rule of Martin," which prevented government entities from seeking judicial review when they were "subordinate" to the state agency and not expressly authorized to sue.

Márquez wrote that this rule was never supported by precedent and ultimately caused confusion rather than providing clear guidance.

The lawyer for Adams 14, Joseph A. Salazar, celebrated the ruling as a "huge freaking win" for local governments, stating that it gives them the ability to hold the state accountable when they are harmed. He also believes that this decision will encourage the state to collaborate more with local authorities to avoid legal challenges in the future.

In the case of Adams 14, the Supreme Court determined that the state had not violated the district's constitutional rights by reorganizing the school district boundaries and leadership, as allowed by state law. Similarly, in the case of Weld County, the court found that the county had not shown any harm to their protected rights and rejected their argument that the new regulations would harm their land use authority and decrease tax revenues.

This ruling will have a significant impact on future state and local interactions in Colorado. The attorney general's office, which represented the state in both cases, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

In the end, the Colorado Supreme Court has given a powerful message: local governments have the right to hold the state accountable and no longer have to accept harmful decisions without any recourse.

As Justice Márquez wrote, "Today, we correct these errors and reaffirm the long-held principle that, where authorized, a government entity may challenge a state agency's actions if the entity has standing."