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Brian Boatright
2011 - Present
2034
14
Brian Boatright is a judge of the Colorado Supreme Court. He assumed office in 2011. His current term ends on January 10, 2034.
Boatright ran for re-election for judge of the Colorado Supreme Court. He won in the retention election on November 5, 2024.
On January 1, 2021, Boatright became the chief justice of the court, replacing Nathan Coats.[1] He served in this capacity until July 26, 2024.[2]
Boatright first became a member of the Colorado Supreme Court by appointment. He was appointed by Democratic Gov. John Hickenlooper in 2011 to replace retired Justice Alex Martinez and was retained by voters in 2014.[3][4][5] To read more about judicial selection in Colorado, click here.
In 2020, Ballotpedia published Ballotpedia Courts: State Partisanship, a study examining the partisan affiliation of all state supreme court justices in the country. As part of this study, we assigned each justice a Confidence Score describing our confidence in the degree of partisanship exhibited by the justices' past partisan behavior, before they joined the court.[6] Boatright received a confidence score of Indeterminate.[7] Click here to read more about this study.
Biography
Boatright was born in Golden, Colorado. He graduated from Westminster College in 1984 and received a J.D. from the University of Denver College of Law in 1988.[4]
Boatright began his legal career in private practice with Boatright and Ripp. He then served as deputy district attorney for Colorado's 1st Judicial District. Gov. Bill Owens (R) appointed Boatright a judge on the 1st Judicial District Court in 1999. Boatright served there until Gov. Hickenlooper appointed him to the state supreme court in 2011.[4]
As of 2021, Boatright had been the dean of the Advance New Judges Training, an annual training, since 2007.[4]
Elections
2024
See also: Colorado Supreme Court elections, 2024
Colorado Supreme Court, Brian Boatright's seat
Brian Boatright was retained to the Colorado Supreme Court on November 5, 2024 with 62.8% of the vote.
Retention Vote |
% |
Votes |
|||
| ✔ | Yes |
62.8
|
1,571,597 | ||
No |
37.2
|
930,272 | |||
Total Votes |
2,501,869 | ||||
|
|
Endorsements
Ballotpedia did not identify endorsements for Boatright in this election.
2014
Boatright was retained to the Supreme Court with 68.6 percent of the vote on November 4, 2014.[5]
Judicial performance evaluation
The Colorado Commissions on Judicial Performance recommended that Justice Boatright be Retained. The full report is available here.
Campaign themes
2024
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Brian Boatright did not complete Ballotpedia's 2024 Candidate Connection survey.
Campaign finance summary
Note: The finance data shown here comes from the disclosures required of candidates and parties. Depending on the election or state, this may represent only a portion of all the funds spent on their behalf. Satellite spending groups may or may not have expended funds related to the candidate or politician on whose page you are reading this disclaimer. Campaign finance data from elections may be incomplete. For elections to federal offices, complete data can be found at the FEC website. Click here for more on federal campaign finance law and here for more on state campaign finance law.
Analysis
Ballotpedia Courts: State Partisanship (2020)
Last updated: June 15, 2020
In 2020, Ballotpedia published Ballotpedia Courts: State Partisanship, a study examining the partisan affiliation of all state supreme court justices in the country as of June 15, 2020.
The study presented Confidence Scores that represented our confidence in each justice's degree of partisan affiliation. This was not a measure of where a justice fell on an ideological spectrum, but rather a measure of how much confidence we had that a justice was or had been affiliated with a political party. The scores were based on seven factors, including but not limited to party registration.[8]
The five resulting categories of Confidence Scores were:
- Strong Democrat
- Mild Democrat
- Indeterminate[9]
- Mild Republican
- Strong Republican
This justice's Confidence Score, as well as the factors contributing to that score, is presented below. The information below was current as of June 2020.
Brian
Boatright
Colorado
- Partisan Confidence Score:
Indeterminate - Judicial Selection Method:
Assisted appointment through governor controlled judicial nominating commission - Key Factors:
- Was a registered Republican before 2020
- Donated less than $2,000 to Republican candidates
- Appointed by a Democratic governor
Partisan Profile
Details:
Boatright was a registered Republican prior to 2020. He donated $150.00 to Republican candidates and organizations. he was appointed by Gov. John Hickenlooper (D).
Noteworthy cases
Anderson v. Griswold (2023)
- See also: Presidential election in Colorado, 2024
On December 19, 2023, Boatright dissented from a 4-3 Colorado Supreme Court ruling that excluded Donald Trump (R) from the state's presidential primary ballot. On March 4, 2024, the United States Supreme Court overruled the state supreme court's ruling.[10]
The Colorado Supreme Court reversed a Denver district court's ruling that Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, which "disqualifies people who have engaged in insurrection against the Constitution after having taken an oath to support it from holding office," did not apply to the presidency.[11] The majority opinion said, "A majority of the court holds that President Trump is disqualified from holding the office of President under Section Three of the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution. Because he is disqualified, it would be a wrongful act under the Election Code for the Colorado Secretary of State to list him as a candidate on the presidential primary ballot."[12]
The Colorado Supreme Court was the first court in the country to determine that the 14th Amendment's disqualification clause applied to Trump. The decision was stayed until January 4, 2024, to allow for appeals. Trump's campaign said they would appeal the decision to the U.S. Supreme Court.[11]
On January 5, 2024, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to review the Colorado Supreme Court’s decision barring Trump from the state’s primary ballot. Oral arguments in the case took place on February 8, 2024.[13]
State supreme court judicial selection in Colorado
- See also: Judicial selection in Colorado
The seven justices on the Colorado Supreme Court are selected through the assisted appointment method. Each justice is appointed by the governor from a list of names compiled by the Colorado Supreme Court Nominating Commission.[14][15]
Initial terms last at least two years, after which justices must stand for retention in a yes-no election. Subsequent terms last 10 years.[15]
Qualifications
To serve on this court, a justice must be:[16]
- a qualified elector in the state;
- licensed to practice law in the state for five years; and
- under the age of 72 (retirement by 72 is mandatory).
Chief justice
The chief justice of the supreme court is selected by peer vote. Beginning in January 2021, the chief justice began serving for a set term on a rotating basis. Previously, the chief justice served indefinitely as long as he or she had the support of his or her peers.[17]
Vacancies
If a midterm vacancy occurs on the court, the seat is filled as it normally would be if the vacancy occurred at the end of a justice's term. A judicial nominating commission recommends to the governor three qualified candidates for an appellate court vacancy (two or three for a trial court vacancy), and the governor selects a successor from that list. After occupying the seat for two years, the newly appointed justice stands for retention in the next general election. The justice then serves a full 10-year term if he or she is retained by voters.[15]
The map below highlights how vacancies are filled in state supreme courts across the country.
See also
External links
|
Officeholder Colorado Supreme Court |
Footnotes
- ↑ Colorado Judicial Branch, "Chief Justice Nathan B. Coats announces retirement, Justice Brian D. Boatright to serve as next Chief Justice as Colorado Supreme Court moves to rotational terms for Chief," August 19, 2020
- ↑ Colorado Judicial Branch, "New Supreme Court Chief Justice Sworn In," accessed August 1, 2024
- ↑ Denver Business Journal, "Boatright picked for Colorado Supreme Court," October 27, 2011
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 Colorado Judicial Branch, "Brian D. Boatright," accessed June 28, 2021
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Colorado Secretary of State, "Judicial Retention - Supreme Court," accessed June 28, 2021
- ↑ We calculated confidence scores by collecting several data points such as party registration, donations, and previous political campaigns.
- ↑ The five possible confidence scores were: Strong Democrat, Mild Democrat, Indeterminate, Mild Republican, and Strong Republican.
- ↑ The seven factors were party registration, donations made to partisan candidates, donations made to political parties, donations received from political parties or bodies with clear political affiliation, participation in political campaigns, the partisanship of the body responsible for appointing the justice, and state trifecta status when the justice joined the court.
- ↑ An Indeterminate score indicates that there is either not enough information about the justice’s partisan affiliations or that our research found conflicting partisan affiliations.
- ↑ Supreme Court, "Trump v. Anderson," accessed March 4, 2024
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 The New York Times, "Trump Is Disqualified From the 2024 Ballot, Colorado Supreme Court Rules," December 19, 2023
- ↑ NBC News, "Colorado Supreme Court kicks Trump off the state's 2024 primary ballot for violating the U.S. Constitution," December 19, 2023
- ↑ The New York Times, "Justices to Decide Whether Trump Is Eligible for Colorado Ballot," January 5, 2024
- ↑ Colorado Judicial Branch, "Colorado Supreme Court," accessed March 28, 2023
- ↑ 15.0 15.1 15.2 Colorado Judicial Branch, "Judicial Nominating Commissions," accessed March 28, 2023
- ↑ Colorado Judicial Branch, "What it takes to become a Judge," accessed March 28, 2023
- ↑ The Denver Post, "Colorado Supreme Court to impose term lengths for chief justice as current one retires," August 19, 2020
Federal courts:
Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals • U.S. District Court: District of Colorado • U.S. Bankruptcy Court: District of Colorado
State courts:
Colorado Supreme Court • Colorado Court of Appeals • Colorado District Courts • Colorado County Courts • Denver Probate Court • Denver Juvenile Court • Colorado Municipal Courts • Colorado Water Courts
State resources:
Courts in Colorado • Colorado judicial elections • Judicial selection in Colorado
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