Legislative Overview

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The American Civil Liberties Union of Colorado believes that the best way to protect the Bill of Rights and the freedoms it guarantees is to ensure that unconstitutional bills never become law. During each legislative session we track numerous bills that address important issues that affect our freedoms. The ACLU of Colorado provides testimony in the Colorado House and Senate.

While the ACLU covers many issues, most of our legislative work is concentrated on privacy (includes reproductive rights), religious freedom, free speech, protected class (includes LGBT, affirmative action, immigrant rights), law enforcement, government secrecy and others. Issues always arise that do not fit neatly into these categories and the ACLU of Colorado is ever vigilant to catch them, too.

The Legislative 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.

2009 Legislative Session: View our position on Key Bills currently in the Colorado Legislature.

Stay Updated: If you would like to receive updates on the work being done as we plan for the next legislative session and action alerts about legislation, sign up here.

Take Action! Visit our Action Center to find out more about the current legislative session and how to contact your local public officials. The only way our legislators know that we care about civil liberties is if WE TELL THEM!

Find your Colorado Senator and House Representative

Legislative Reports

Here are the end-of-session reports listing every bill we monitored, supported or opposed last year. 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.

Legislative Recaps

---------2009 Session, Key Bills 2009

Read the 2008 Eye on Colorado Scorecard to see the bills we tracked in last year's legislative session.
---------2008 Session, final legislative report, failed bills.
---------2008 Ballot Issues, click here. (1.44MB PDF)
For information on legislation during the 2007 session, click here.

Eye on Colorado Legislative Scorecard

For four 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 2009 Scorecard, click here.
For the 2008 Scorecard, click here.
For the 2007 Scorecard, click here.
For the 2006 Scorecard, click here.
For the 2005 Scorecard, click here.