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Melissa Hart (Colorado)
2017 - Present
2031
8
Melissa Hart is a judge of the Colorado Supreme Court. She assumed office in 2017. Her current term ends on January 14, 2031.
Hart ran for re-election for judge of the Colorado Supreme Court. She won in the retention election on November 3, 2020.
Hart first became a member of the court by appointment. She was appointed by Democratic Governor John Hickenlooper in 2017 to succeed former Judge Allison Eid, who was elevated to the United States Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit by President Donald Trump.[1] To remain on the bench for a full 10-year term, she had to stand for retention in 2020. 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.[2] Hart received a confidence score of Mild Democrat.[3] Click here to read more about this study.
Hart previously worked as a professor at the University of Colorado Law School.[4]
Biography
Hart grew up in Denver, Colorado. She received a B.A. from Harvard-Radcliffe College in 1991 and a J.D. from Harvard Law School in 1995.[4][1]
Hart clerked for Judge Guido Calabresi of the United States Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit and for Justice John Paul Stevens of the United States Supreme Court. She was an associate at Jones, Day, Reavis & Pogue and a trial attorney with the U.S. Department of Justice's Civil Division. Hart then worked as a professor at the University of Colorado Law School from 2000 to 2017, when she was appointed to the state supreme court. At the university, she directed the Byron R. White Center for the Study of American Constitutional Law.[4][1]
Hart was a founding member of the Sonia Sotomayor Inn of Court. As of 2021, she was a commissioner on the Colorado Access to Justice Commission.[4]
Elections
2020
Colorado Supreme Court, Melissa Hart's seat
Melissa Hart was retained to the Colorado Supreme Court on November 3, 2020 with 74.6% of the vote.
Retention Vote |
% |
Votes |
|||
| ✔ | Yes |
74.6
|
2,020,956 | ||
No |
25.4
|
689,323 | |||
Total Votes |
2,710,279 | ||||
|
|
2017
Gov. John Hickenlooper (D) appointed Hart to the Colorado Supreme Court.[1]
Campaign themes
2020
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Melissa Hart did not complete Ballotpedia's 2020 Candidate Connection survey.
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.[5]
The five resulting categories of Confidence Scores were:
- Strong Democrat
- Mild Democrat
- Indeterminate[6]
- 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.
Melissa
Hart
Colorado
- Partisan Confidence Score:
Mild Democrat - Judicial Selection Method:
Assisted appointment through governor controlled judicial nominating commission - Key Factors:
- Donated over $2,000 to Democratic candidates
- Was a registered Democrat before 2020
- Appointed by a Democratic governor
Partisan Profile
Details:
Hart donated over $20,000 to Democratic candidates and organizations. She was appointed by Gov. Hickenlooper (D). Hart was a registered Democrat prior to 2020. She received endorsements from Democrat-affiliated organizations such as the LGBTQ+ Bar Association of Colorado.
Noteworthy cases
Anderson v. Griswold (2023)
- See also: Presidential election in Colorado, 2024
On December 19, 2023, Hart joined in the 4-3 Colorado Supreme Court majority 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.[7]
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.[8] 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."[9]
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.[8]
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.[10]
Colorado Supreme Court narrows state deference practices (2021)
In the wake of the Mississippi Supreme Court’s June 10, 2021, rejection of state-level Auer deference, the Colorado Supreme Court followed suit in a June 14, 2021, en banc decision that narrowed applications of Brand X deference and Chevron deference practices in the state.[11]
In Nieto v. Clark’s Market, the court declined to extend Brand X deference to a regulation issued by the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment (CDLE). Brand X deference requires courts to defer to reasonable agency interpretations of statutes even when the interpretations conflict with prior court precedent. The challenged regulation in Nieto adopted an interpretation of a state labor law that departed from precedent set by the state Court of Appeals, but the Colorado Supreme Court declined to extend Brand X deference to the agency’s interpretation in the case.[11]
“[T]he CDLE is a state agency, and the [U.S. Supreme] Court’s holding in Brand X is not binding as to parallel state administrative procedure statutes,” wrote Justice Melissa Hart in the opinion. “We have not yet similarly interpreted the Colorado Administrative Procedure Act, and we decline Nieto’s invitation to do so here.”[11]
The justices further rejected state-level Chevron deference, which compels a court to defer to an agency’s interpretation of an unclear statute. Justice Hart stated that while the court has applied Chevron-style deference in the past, “we have made clear that, while agency interpretations should be given due consideration, they are ‘not binding on the court.’”[11]
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.[12][13]
Initial terms last at least two years, after which justices must stand for retention in a yes-no election. Subsequent terms last 10 years.[13]
Qualifications
To serve on this court, a justice must be:[14]
- 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.[15]
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.[13]
The map below highlights how vacancies are filled in state supreme courts across the country.
See also
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Colorado Judicial Branch, "Gov. Hickenlooper appoints new justice to Colorado Supreme Court," December 14, 2017
- ↑ 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.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 Colorado Judicial Branch, "Melissa Hart," accessed June 30, 2021
- ↑ 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
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 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
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 11.3 Colorado Supreme Court, "Nieto v. Clark's Market," June 14, 2021
- ↑ Colorado Judicial Branch, "Colorado Supreme Court," accessed March 28, 2023
- ↑ 13.0 13.1 13.2 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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