Opinion ID: 771682
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Pending State Court Challenge to H.B. 00-1194

Text: 16 Amici Common Cause and the League of Women Voters raise one additional argument against mootness: that Amicus Common Cause has a pending lawsuit in state court challenging the validity of H.B. 00-1194's passage under Colorado's Open Meetings Act. Colo. Common Cause, Inc. v. Colorado, No. 00-CV-4156 (filed June 22, 2000). According to Amici, H.B. 00-1194 is thus in jeopardy of being invalidated, thereby leaving the constitutionality of the repealed provisions still very much in controversy . . . . Amici Br. in Opp'n to Mootness at 2-3 (June 26, 2000). At least one circuit has summarily rejected this argument as allowing parties to play off one court system against another. Miller v. Benson, 68 F.3d 163, 164-65 (7th Cir. 1995) (Whatever the outcome of the state case, this federal case . . . lacks any continuing significance.). Of course, the amici are not parties, but it is noteworthy that Common Cause's state lawsuit was filed only four days before its brief was filed in this court more than three months after the allegedly defective passage of H.B. 00-1194. Even if the timing of Common Cause's lawsuit is purely coincidental, we do not believe that the mere filing of a lawsuit is sufficient to resurrect Article III jurisdiction over the repealed statutes. 4