An interesting legal tidbit on standing. An open letter to the editor of the Sterling Journal Advocate. Youth Involvement in Environmental Justice.
An interesting legal tidbit on standing.
In order to sue, you must have legal standing. This concept can get somewhat complicated (see the Wikipedia page linked first below for a good introduction to the concept), but it's fairly well explained by the graphic above.
You must have been injured (in the legal sense and this can include things like financial damage, it needn't be physical injury) in some way.
The injury must have been caused by the defendant.
And a decision rendered in your favor is capable of remedying that injury.
The CFOIC article linked second below presents an interesting case about legal standing. There is an Open Meetings wrinkle here which I won't touch on, but the alleged injury here comes from some Elbert County residents who claimed injury because Elbert County Commissioners approved contract extensions for some employees OUTSIDE of a legally-required open meeting.
The residents who sued over the open meetings law violation also sued over a law which requires county commissioners who financially obligate the county outside of their official duties to be held personally liable. Quoting the article with links left intact:
"The residents’ complaint asked Slade to also hold the commissioners in violation of another state statute that forbids county commissions from making contracts 'unless an appropriation shall have been previously made concerning such expense.' Under that law, county commissioners 'who undertake to create any liability against the county, except such as they are by statute required to do, shall be personally liable and, together with the sureties upon their official bonds, shall be held for such indebtedness.'"
The residents claimed that the tax dollars they have to pay now to extend the contracts is a legal injury because those dollars were spent outside the normal legal process. In short, the commissioners are the ones who should be liable for the spending. If the taxpayers have to foot the bill, it's a legal injury and the court should make the commissioners repay them.
The judge hearing the case tossed the lawsuit about reimbursing the county treasury from the commissioners' pockets because he ruled that the residents lacked standing.
Quoting the ruling found in the link, "'Plaintiffs contend their legally protected interest is "their right to ensure that their local government … complies with non-discretionary restrictions on their power to expend Plaintiffs’ tax dollars,"' the judge wrote. 'Plaintiffs do not argue they have standing on any other basis. Because Plaintiffs have not shown that Defendants’ alleged action is an unlawful expenditure of their tax dollars, Plaintiffs fail to satisfy both prongs of the Wimberly [an earlier precedent from the Colorado Supreme Court which gave a legal test to establish one part of legal standing] test, and the Court finds that Plaintiffs lack standing to bring the third claim for relief against Defendants.'"
Man oh man can you imagine what would have happened if they'd actually had standing and the lawsuit proceeded? It's not exactly this simple, but the mind reels at the possibility of taxpayers being injured by having to pay taxes in certain circumstances.
Nonetheless, an interesting case and bit of legal nickel knowledge.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standing_(law)
https://coloradofoic.org/elbert-county-residents-lack-standing-to-hold-commissioners-personally-liable-for-alleged-open-meetings-violations-judge-says/
An open letter to the editor of the Sterling Journal Advocate
I wrote an op ed recently (see the first link below) touching on smaller local papers using content provided by other papers without a fair accounting of what the source is and what sorts of bias that source might have.
In the op ed, I discussed Colorado Newsline, but you could just as easily extend the concept to local papers using other content.
I recently saw an article by what I knew were Denver Post reporters on my local paper's front page. The reporters were not labeled as Denver Post reporters however.
Given the Post's editorial slant, I didn't feel this was fair to readers, and I took my own advice from my op ed. I wrote the editor of the paper to say this. I wrote mine as an open letter (the text of which follows the op ed link), and also submitted it as a letter to the editor.
If you note similar in your local paper, call it out. Be civil, but speak up for full disclosure of the outlet they're drawing from.
https://pagetwo.completecolorado.com/2024/12/14/gaines-colorado-newsline-progressive-bias/
Email follows:
Letter to the Editor of the Sterling Journal/Advocate and South Platte Sentinel
My name is Cory Gaines and I am writing regarding the Thursday 1/16 South Platte Sentinel, in particular the article titled as "Gov has open-minded approach to Trump" with authors Seth Klamann and Nick Coltrain who are listed as being from the "Media News Group".
As someone who does a fair bit of reading and writing, I recognize these two names as being reporters from the Denver Post. The Denver Post has long had a reputation for left-leaning coverage and this article is a perfect example. One need merely look at how much space and time were given to checking our governor's claims, and at how little space was allowed to the politicians on the other side of the aisle.
Just as important, and perhaps more to my point here, I wonder why you did not list these reporters as being from (what many consider the left-leaning) Denver Post. I wonder how many people out here that don't subscribe to the Post would recognize the writers' names offhand. If they don't, they are left without a chance to fully assess the source of the information they are given; to understand, for example, that the lack of any check on the governor's statements is as much a reflection of the slant of the reporter and outlet as it is of the governor's truthfulness (or not).
I applaud your efforts and appreciate greatly your local coverage. It has been a boon to me in keeping tabs on the city council, county commissioners, and school board. Thank you. At the same time, I feel that you owe readers a sense of the source of outside coverage so that they might be able to assess who is providing their news.
Thank you,
C
Youth Involvement in Environmental Justice.
If you are anything like me, one of the first things to pop into your mind after reading the above is "what is environmental justice?"
I have studied and written on the topic of environmental justice some, trying to figure out how the word relates to actual, tangible policy in this state. I've had varying degrees of success.
The Substack newsletter linked below details a new bill that would seek to, and here I quote, "... involve youth in 'environmental justice' initiatives and promote 'clean' energy in in the state’s failing government schools."
It would do so by adding a 14 to 21 year old (appointed by our governor) to the existing environmental justice board at CDPHE as well as tasking the Colorado Energy Office (CEO) with developing, quoting again, "... 'best practices' for adopting and financing 'clean' energy resources in the state’s failing and cartel/union controlled public schools."
Neither of these strike me as a good idea. Not that jazzed about this board to begin with and certainly not with a younger person on it. The same can be said for tasking the CEO with best practices (the first step toward mandating) around adopting and financing green energy projects.
If you feel the same, you can read up some more in the newsletter on the bill, including where it will show up in committee.
