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Colorado 2008: Civil Liberties in the State Legislature

The ACLU of Colorado puts membership dues to good use advocating for civil liberty-friendly legislation and stopping those measures that would erode our freedoms. The committee that oversees legislation, meets weekly to discuss the bills as they are introduced. Committee members decide whether to monitor a bill – especially if it could morph into something bad, and determine to support, actively support or oppose the bill. The last two categories are the bills that usually require ACLU testimony.

2008 marks our fourth year of working with a contract lobbyist, and we were very successful in 2007. If you want to receive legislative action alerts, sign up here.

Legislative Reports for 2008

Here's the current Legislative Report. This PDF document is updated weekly (at first) and then bi-weekly throughout the session. Now that the session has ended, the Final Reports contain the most current information.

Legislative Report for April 28, 2008

Here are the end-of-session reports listing every bill we monitored, supported or opposed. As bills died during the session, they were dropped from the report, so if you don't see the one you're looking for, try the "Failed Bills" PDF.

Final Legislative Report for the 2008 session

Failed Bills from the 2008 session

Key Terms

Actively Support: ACLU actively lobbied or testified for the passage of the bill.
Passive Support: ACLU supported the bill but did not testify on it.
Actively Oppose: ACLU actively lobbied or testified in order to prevent a bill’s passage.
Passive Oppose: opposed the bill but did not testify on it.
Monitor: The bill didn’t have a positive or a negative input on civil liberties but there was a potential for that to occur.
Postponed Indefinitely: The bill was killed in committee, before going to a legislative floor vote.
Note: If the current status shows action by the governor, it means that the bill passed both houses of the Colorado legislature.

Legislative Recaps

For information on legislation during the 2006 session, click here.
---------2006 Special Session, passed legislation, failed legislation.
---------2006 Ballot Issues, click here.
For information on legislation during the 2005 session, click here.

For two straight years, the ACLU of Colorado has published its Scorecard for Civil Liberties.The Scorecard highlights many of the bills that we feel had the biggest impact on civil liberties. The voting record of each legislator has been included in it as well, to provide the general public with an easy way to see the exact stance of their elected representatives on many key issues.
For the 2007 Scorecard, click here.
For the 2006 Scorecard, click here.
For the 2005 Scorecard, click here.

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