Colorado Governor Sued Over Firearms Protection Law

DENVER (CN) – Republican lawmakers and gun owners filed a lawsuit against Colorado Governor Jared Polis Thursday, claiming he signed a gun bill into law in violation of the state constitution.

The lawsuit, filed on the second to last day of the 2019 legislative session, seeks to stop Polis from spending “unlawful government expenditures” on the creation of a law that allows police or family members of a gun owner to file an Extreme Risk Protection Order.

The protection order bars the gun owner from possessing or purchasing guns for nearly a year and requires the surrender of all their firearms and concealed carry permit. The owner must then prove not to be a threat in order to have the guns and permit returned.

The complaint claims lawmakers failed to read the bill at length before passing it through the House and Senate, a requirement put in place by the state’s founders in 1876 to “prevent, so far as possible, fraud and trickery and deceit and subterfuge in the enactment of bills and to prevent hastily and ill-considered legislation.”

Earlier this year, Republican lawmakers used a similar tactic in an attempt to prevent the passage of a major oil and gas reform bill by requiring another 2,000-page recodification bill be read at length.

Both the reform and the recodification passed both chambers and Polis signed them into law.

Led by Loveland-based nonprofit, the Rocky Mountain Gun Owners, the lawsuit includes House Minority Leader Patrick Neville, R-Castle Rock, as well as Reps. Lori Saine, R-Firestone and Dave Williams, R-Colorado Springs, who each objected to the bill passing without being read.

Others have argued that the law violates not just the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution but more notably the Fifth Amendment.

“Due process in this bill is not defined in a way that makes sense with the way every other the law is enforced in Colorado,” said Weld County Sheriff Steven Reams, adding that he was willing to go to jail to challenge it.

“If if my understanding of this law being unconstitutional is correct, if it takes me going to jail to further one of these cases into the courts for ruling, then that’s what I’m willing to do,” Reams told Courthouse News. “I would much rather be held in contempt of court for not going out and issuing one of these red flag orders.”

The plaintiffs request declaratory judgment affirming that their rights were violated as well as injunctions that would ban the state “from administering or enforcing any provisions of HB 1177.”

Polis, who signed the bill into law April 12, declined to comment on the pending litigation.

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