Gonzalez-Estay v. Lamm

Summary

The Colorado Supreme Court reviewed a challenge to the initiative title setting board’s titles for Initiative #55, which would restrict Colorado governmental entities from providing non-emergency services to persons unlawfully present in the United States. The court held that the initiative violated Colorado’s constitutional single-subject requirement because it grouped unrelated purposes—reducing taxpayer-funded welfare expenditures and restricting access to administrative services—under an overly broad theme. The court reversed the Board and remanded with directions to strike the title and return the initiative to its proponents.

Holdings

1. Claim preclusion and law-of-the-case principles do not bar review in this special statutory proceeding, even when a proposed initiative contains language identical or nearly identical to an earlier initiative.
2. Initiative #55 violated Colorado's constitutional single-subject requirement because it grouped at least two unrelated purposes under the broad theme of restricting non-emergency government services: reducing taxpayer expenditures for welfare-related services to unlawfully present persons and restricting unrelated administrative services.
3. The Board erred in setting the title and ballot title and submission clause for Initiative #55.

Questions Presented

1. Whether claim preclusion or law of the case barred review of Initiative #55 because an earlier, nearly identical initiative had been considered by the court.
2. Whether Initiative #55 violated article V, section 1(5.5) of the Colorado Constitution and section 1-40-106.5, C.R.S. (2005), by containing multiple subjects and distinct purposes connected only by a broad theme.
3. Whether the Board erred in setting the title and ballot title and submission clause for Initiative #55.

Disposition

reversed_and_remanded