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Here you will find articles that focus on our concerns about the environment, law, politics and other issues affecting Colorado, the United States, and the world. Please understand that these articles are for informational purposes only, and are not intended to be taken as legal advice. Thank you!
“Blackacre is the most celebrated tract of land in the world of law… Blackacre is wholly mythical, yet totally real. It is a concept, living in the realm of the mind and doubly valuable since much of the law of property has the same type of reality.” John E. Cribbet, Principles of the Law of Property 2 (2c ed.1975)
The articles within the Blackacre Journal contain the personal views of the individual authors. Please read the DISCLAIMER about the nature of this blog and the information contained therein.
The cataract of special interest money released by the U.S. Supreme Court’s Citizen’s United decision has subjected Americans to a staggering assault of negative advertising and character assassination. But candidates for District Attorney in the 18th Judicial District offered an island of civility in this river of vilification last Wednesday when they faced off at [...]
On March 21, 2012, Justice Scalia authored a unanimous U.S. Supreme Court decision about the ability to seek judicial review of EPA decisions under the Clean Water Act. In Sackett v. EPA, the Court does not actually decide the merits because the issue before the Court includes only whether and when a court may hear [...]
For ninety years after it achieved statehood in 1876, Colorado elected its judges in partisan elections. As a result, mining and other business interests had so much clout in the courtroom on high profile cases that historian Page Smith lumped the judiciary in with the corrupt executive and legislative branches in labeling Colorado’s state [...]
It’s a fine and righteous thing to honor past heroes of conscience such as former Gov. Ralph L. Carr, whose name will adorn Colorado’s new state judicial complex. But Denver Manager of Safety Alex Martinez believes it’s even more important to look into the future and ask what our grandchildren will think about the [...]
– Comedian Mel Brooks is famous for his line: “It’s good to be the king.” But when an irresistible optimism meets an immovable state fiscal crisis, it’s also good to be the Chief Justice of the Colorado Supreme Court. This truth was found to be self-evident when Chief Justice Michael Bender addressed [...]
The rough reception that Deputy Solicitor General Edwin Kneedler received before the U.S. Supreme Court when he argued in behalf of the individual mandate to purchase insurance that is the core of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act surprised many observers. But the sharp divide on the high tribunal came as no shock [...]
This article addresses some of the key changes made with the new Child and Family Investigator Directive.
Lawsuit Seeks to Restore Federal Protection to Gray Wolves in Northern Rockies Missoula, MT—May 5. Alliance for the Wild Rockies, Friends of the Clearwater, and WildEarth Guardians today filed suit in federal court in Montana against the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for delisting wolves in Montana, Idaho, and portions of Utah, Washington, and Oregon. [...]
(This article by Bob Ewegen, Director of Research and Communicaltions at the Mile High Law Office, was written for the Colorado Statesman’s upcoming Law Day edition due for publication May 5.) While other states have been rocked by scandals involving their judicial branch, Coloradans celebrate Law Day in 2011 knowing that our time-tested merit selection, [...]
It’s not every day that the usually courtly Justice Greg Hobbs provokes his learned colleague on the Colorado Supreme Court, Justice Nancy Rice, to figuratively blow her top – while a distinguished audience of judges and attorneys bursts into rollicking laughter and appreciative applause. No, it’s not every day – it’s Law Day. The crowd [...]
Washington, DC-March 18. WildEarth Guardians supports Federal Judge Donald Molloy’s August 2010 decision that put wolves in the Northern Rockies back on the endangered species list and also set important legal precedent. But today, the Interior Department and 10 environmental groups announced a settlement that agrees to wolf delisting and specifically seeks to vacate the Judge Molloy’s decision. Guardians applauds Alliance for the Wild Rockies, Western Watersheds Project, and Friends of the Clearwater for continuing to support Molloy’s ruling and not going along with the delisting plan.
The Colorado court of appeals published a helpful new opinion today regarding how to calculate child support when the parenting plan is different as to each child.
WildEarth Guardians and the Mile High Law Office reached an agreement with the Fish and Wildlife Service in the end of September that will map out a plan to recover the jaguarundi. The agreement requires the Service to issue a draft recovery plan for the cat in its Texas range by December 2012 and a [...]
U.S. District Judge Vaugh Walker’s landmark ruling voiding California’s ban on same-sex marriage has not resulted in a resumption of gay nuptials in the Golden State. But the judge’s thoughtful, 136-page decision did evoke six words that may finally shift this rancorous debate away from the issue of gay rights and into the far more [...]
To the surprise of no one, the U.S. Congress headed to its pre-election recess without passing major legislation to address the issue of global climate change. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada, removed the “cap and trade” provisions intended to reduce the build-up of greenhouse gas emissions from the energy bill before introducing a stripped-down [...]
Unlike Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, and other defenders of the late and unlamented Jim Crow on the Senate Judiciary committee, I come to praise Thurgood Marshall – not to sully him. It is perhaps a tribute to the qualifications of Elena Kagan to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court that diehard foes like Cornyn have [...]
Poor John Suthers. Colorado’s Republican Attorney General started out trying to emulate South Carolina’s secessionist firebrand John C. Calhoun. But he ended up being linked in the public mind to an even more notorious scofflaw – Willie Horton. Suthers was appointed attorney general in 2004 after the elected incumbent, Democrat Ken Salazar, was elected to [...]
In 1957, Chrysler Corp. unveiled its big-tailfin styled cars, dubbed “The Forward Look,” with a jingle that proclaimed: “Suddenly, it’s 1960. 1960 is here today!” As I watched the results of the May 23 Colorado Republican convention unfold, I realized the Grand Old Palins (as they are apparently now known) were going with the “Retro [...]
Here at the Mile High Law Office, we have given this matter deep thought and have reached our own conclusion as to the relevance of Kagan’s sexual preferences to her judicial qualifications. To clothe the applicable legal principle in the Latin that befits a high court nomination, we went online to a Latin-to-English translation site and produced this:
Quisnam dat rattus anus?
In plain English, that translates as: “Who gives a rat’s ass?”
That’s obvious political bombast, to put it politely. But there are legitimate policy reasons to support responsible development of natural gas. Most obviously, there is the growing consensus that the world’s climate is changing and that human activity plays a significant role in that change. From the standpoint of greenhouse gases, coal is the clearly identified villain, with the much-touted “clean coal” so far proving about as much of an oxymoron as “safe sex.”
These are trying times for the metropolitan Denver Rapid Transit District’s FasTracks rail transit project. The single most important environmental issue in Colorado faces mounting costs, shaky revenues and a fracturing political base. But it remains critical for Colorado’s future.
We have been going about this saving endangered or threatened species thing all wrong. David A. Fahrenthold of the Washington Post explains in his article Tastier Names Trouble for Seafood Stocks that numerous varieties of fish are currently on the threatened species list because someone decided to give them a less disgusting name.
With the Obama administration firmly installed in Washington, it’s time for the environmental movement to ask the question first raised in the 1957 20th Century Fox comedy starring Jayne Mansfield and Tony Randall: Will success spoil Rock Hunter?
In this office, we are strong supporters of keeping Colorado courts fair and impartial in the face of efforts by politicians like former state Sen. John Andrews to bring the courts under the control of special interests. Since retiring from The Denver Post last year, our director of research and communications, Bob Ewegen, has served as Journalist in Residence for the Colorado Judicial Institute, which fights to keep Colorado courts free from political pressure. CJI also gives annual “Judicial Excellence” awards to honor outstanding judges in Colorado. It has also raised $195,000 to help provide advanced education and training for Colorado judges and judicial department personnel.
On Wednesday, June 17th, 2009, WildEarth Guardians filed a lawsuit in Federal District Court against Secretary of the Interior, Ken Salazar for failing to develop a recovery plan for two sub-species of jaguarundi. The two sub-species at issue are the Gulf Coast jaguarundi and the Sinaloan Jaguarundi.
Colorado’s water rights are based on the prior appropriation doctrine, which uses a “first in time, first in right” set of rules to determine who has rights to water. Water users who appropriate water first (called Senior users) have a senior right (or priority to water) over those users who appropriate the water at a later date (Junior users). This doctrine came to Colorado during the 1859 Gold Rush and was added to the Colorado Constitution in 1876.