{"id":2129,"date":"2026-06-29T20:05:33","date_gmt":"2026-06-29T20:05:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/coloradospringsmoverss.com\/?p=2129"},"modified":"2026-06-29T20:05:33","modified_gmt":"2026-06-29T20:05:33","slug":"colorado-supreme-court-rejects-congressional-redistricting-ballot-measures-in-blow-to-democrats-2028-plans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/coloradospringsmoverss.com\/?p=2129","title":{"rendered":"Colorado Supreme Court rejects congressional redistricting ballot measures in blow to Democrats\u2019 2028 plans"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The Colorado Supreme Court rejected multiple proposed ballot measures Monday that would have asked voters to redraw the state\u2019s electoral maps for the 2028 election to give Democrats an advantage in seven of eight congressional districts.<\/p>\n

Read more Supreme Court rules constitutional privacy protections apply to cellphone users\u2019 location history<\/a><\/p>\n

For now, the two unanimous rulings knock Colorado out of the nationwide partisan redistricting wars kicked off by President Donald Trump as Republican- and Democratic-led states have jockeyed for an advantage by adopting new congressional maps.<\/p>\n

The state Supreme Court concluded that the ballot measures violated the state\u2019s requirement that ballot proposals encompass only a single subject. The justices rejected claims by proponents that the proposals \u201cpoint in the same direction.\u201d Three of the rejected ballot measures were backed by Democrats seeking to grow their congressional power in the state, while two more were backed by conservatives with similar aims for Republican candidates.<\/p>\n

\u201cChanging long-settled law by modifying the timing, frequency, criteria, and entity responsible for congressional redistricting represents a significant change beyond the proponents\u2019 stated central purposes (of) \u2026 congressional redistricting by adopting a new temporary map,\u201d Chief Justice Monica M\u00e1rquez wrote in one of the opinions.<\/p>\n

The single-subject requirement is intended to prevent voter confusion or \u201clog-rolling,\u201d meaning when a voter supports one part of a complex ballot initiative but not another.<\/p>\n

In two opinions, the justices wrote that the various measures raised log-rolling concerns because they generally would\u2019ve changed how maps are drawn while also instituting new maps in 2028 and 2030, in ways favorable to either Democrats or Republicans.<\/p>\n

The justices argued that a voter might want to change how districts are drawn overall but may not support the partisan map proposals in the upcoming elections, or vice versa.<\/p>\n

In her opinion rejecting two of the ballot measures, M\u00e1rquez wrote that each proposal \u201crepresents a seismic shift to Colorado\u2019s longstanding redistricting process enshrined in the state constitution.\u201d The other opinion was authored by Justice Richard L. Gabriel.<\/p>\n

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The rulings were welcomed by conservative groups, while the campaign that filed the Democratic ballot measures called the outcome \u201ca legal setback over a technicality.\u201d<\/p>\n

Democrats and Republicans currently have a 4-4 split in representation in Colorado\u2019s U.S. House districts, with one of those considered a swing district. Colorado\u2019s congressional and state legislative districts are drawn by independent redistricting commissions, which were created through separate ballot measures and first produced maps in 2022, after the 2020 census.<\/p>\n

Unless voters pass another measure changing the process, those congressional boundaries will be in effect until the commission undertakes the next regular round of redistricting, after the 2030 census.<\/p>\n

Because the changes proposed through the new ballot measures would\u2019ve taken effect in 2028, they wouldn\u2019t have directly impacted the tight race for control of Congress in November. But the rulings will delay any move by Colorado in the redistricting wars until at least 2028, when redrafted proposals could next be introduced.<\/p>\n

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The court\u2019s decisions represent a win for conservatives in Colorado, who had sought to protect both the state\u2019s independent redistricting process and the Republican-leaning congressional seats that would\u2019ve been imperiled by Democrat-friendly revisions.<\/p>\n

Had the Democrat-backed proposals advanced and passed this November, liberal candidates would\u2019ve had a distinct advantage in as many as seven of the state\u2019s seats for the 2028 and 2030 elections.<\/p>\n

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The defeat scuttles Democrats\u2019 efforts to expand the redistricting wars, which kicked off last year after Texas Republicans altered their maps. That was followed by a spree of map-redrawing across the country.<\/p>\n

In Colorado, Democrats initially sought to redraw the state\u2019s maps ahead of the 2028 election \u2014 the soonest new boundaries could take effect here \u2014 prompting retaliatory proposals from Republicans. But given Colorado\u2019s distinctly Democratic voter base, the liberal push was likely to find more fertile ground, had one of the Democrats\u2019 measures reached the ballot box.<\/p>\n

A spokesman for the Colorado Democratic Party said officials were still reviewing the decisions. In a statement, the campaign backing the Democratic proposals, Coloradans for a Level Playing Field, said the justices \u201cthwarted\u201d Colorado\u2019s effort to push back against President Donald Trump.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe success of this partisan attempt to sideline Coloradans from responding to Donald Trump\u2019s unprecedented mid-decade redistricting scheme is disappointing,\u201d said Curtis Hubbard, a spokesman for the campaign. \u201cWhile Trump and his MAGA allies regularly sidestep the law and ignore voters, efforts to respond have once again been dealt a legal setback over a technicality.\u201d<\/p>\n

Republicans, meanwhile, declared victory.<\/p>\n

Michael Fields, the president of the conservative advocacy group Advance Colorado, said the court had \u201caccurately decided that political games cannot be played with Colorado\u2019s Congressional maps.\u201d<\/p>\n

Scott Gessler, a former secretary of state whose law firm filed the Republican measures, wrote that the court \u201csoundly rejected the Democratic efforts to manipulate the ballot process to overturn Colorado\u2019s nonpartisan redistricting process.\u201d<\/p>\n

Three of the ballot measures were tangled together. Two of them, Initiatives 241 and 242, would\u2019ve replaced the existing redistricting process and implemented new, temporary maps for 2028 and 2030, respectively.<\/p>\n

Each would have taken effect only if the other passed. Republicans, in response, filed Initiative 328. It, too, would\u2019ve passed only had Initiative 241 been approved. The measure would\u2019ve also implemented new maps, albeit not the Democratic-friendly ones proposed by 242.<\/p>\n

Coloradans for a Level Playing Field had already raised $2.3 million and had spent more than $2 million of it, in large part to gather signatures for the ballot. Much of that money came from the Fairness Project, which has backed liberal ballot measures elsewhere, and American Opportunity Action, a relatively new, Democrat-aligned dark money outfit.<\/p>\n

The campaign also received $150,000 from a political action committee tied to the Democratic caucus in the U.S. House.<\/p>\n

Stay up-to-date with Colorado Politics by signing up for our weekly newsletter, The Spot.<\/em><\/p>\n

Read more 3 wildland firefighters killed in western Colorado identified<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Colorado Supreme Court has rejected five partisan redistricting ballot measures, dealing a blow to Democrats’ plans to redraw Colorado’s congressional maps for the 2028 election.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2128,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2129","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-election","category-news","category-politics"],"yoast_head":"\nColorado Supreme Court rejects congressional redistricting ballot measures in blow to Democrats\u2019 2028 plans - Colorado Springs Moverss<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/coloradospringsmoverss.com\/?p=2129\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Colorado Supreme Court rejects congressional redistricting ballot measures in blow to Democrats\u2019 2028 plans - 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