Court Opinion

ID: 9564502
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 19:01:53.782226+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:18:27.790201
License: Public Domain

Justice LOHR
dissenting:
The majority holds that the Chief Judge of the Eighth Judicial District had the authority, without approval from the Colorado Supreme Court, to issue a standing order, number 93-2, prohibiting the unauthorized possession of a deadly weapon or firearm on the second floor of the Larimer County Courthouse. The majority therefore reverses the order of the Larimer County District Court holding the standing order invalid in a contempt of court proceeding based upon violation of the order and directs that the contempt citation be reinstated. I respectfully dissent.
The majority reasons that because Chief Justice Directive 85-01 (CJD 85-01) designates a chief judge as the “ ‘administrative head of all district and county courts within a district,’ ” a chief judge by implication possesses the unreviewable authority “to assure that order is maintained and to control security as it relates to the district court courtrooms.” Maj. op. at 824, quoting CJD 85-01. In reaching its conclusion that Standing Order 93-2 reflects a valid exercise of Chief Judge Sullivan’s administrative authority, the majority does not identify with any precision the source of authority for chief judges to issue orders such as the one at issue here today. In my opinion, Article VI, section 5(4), of the Colorado Constitution and CJD 85-01 constitute the only sources of authority for administrative actions taken by chief judges of district courts throughout the state. Moreover, CJD 85-01 pi-ovides this court with the power to ensure that actions taken by chief judges are uniform and consistent throughout the state and that differences in local rules of practice and procedure are limited to those truly necessitated by local conditions.
Article VI, section 5, of the Colorado Constitution pertains generally to the personnel of the Colorado Supreme Court; the authority of this court to appoint a chief justice, a state court administrator, and other necessary personnel; and the appointment of chief judges for each judicial district. Section 5(4) specifically provides as follows:
The chief justice [of the supreme court] shall appoint from the district judges of each judicial district a chief judge to serve at the pleasure of the chief justice. A chief judge shall receive no additional salary by reason of holding such position. Each chief judge shall have and exercise such administrative powers over all judges of all couris within his district as may be delegated to him by the chief justice.
(Emphasis added). Thus, the office of chief judge is created by the state constitution and a chief judge’s power is derived from those powers expressly delegated to a chief judge by the chief justice of the state supreme court.
Consistent with the constitutional mandate of section 5(4), the chief justice of this court issued CJD 85-01. CJD 85-01, entitled “Authority and Responsibility of Chief Judges,” enumerates in great detail the authority of a chief judge over such matters as the judicial district’s budget, personnel responsibilities concerning all court employees, and case as*827signment and calendaring procedures.1 CJD 85-01 specifically provides for the adoption of local court rules in section number four of that directive:
4. Local Court Rules
Local rules of practice and procedure must be approved by the Supreme Court. Proposed local court rules are to be submitted to the Supreme Court by the chief judge through the office of the state court administrator. Proposed rules for the Denver County, Juvenile, Probate and Superior courts shall be submitted by their respective presiding judges in the same manner.
(Emphasis added). Although not spelling out in detail what rules may properly be adopted, CJD 85-01 specifically requires that all proposed local rules be approved by this court.
The majority fails to give effect to this requirement and concludes instead that CJD 85-01 implicitly confers the authority on chief judges to issue unreviewable “administrative” standing orders such as the one at issue here. Nothing in section 5(4) of our state constitution or in the language of CJD 85-01 supports the majority’s conclusion that chief judges possess certain implied unre-viewable administrative powers in addition to the enumerated administrative powers conferred by that directive. Additionally, I would construe “[Ijocal rules of practice and procedure,” as referred to in paragraph 4 of CJD 85-01, to include all matters governing the interrelation of the courts and the public which the courts are created to serve, with the result that general rules concerning court security measures are subject to the approval of this court under the express terms of that directive.
C.R.C.P. 121 also requires that all proposed local rules, “including local procedures and standing orders having the effect of local rules,” be submitted to this court for review and approval. Effective April 1, 1988, this court repealed all district court local rules and adopted C.R.C.P. 121. Pursuant to C.R.C.P. 121(b), judicial districts may now submit to this court for review and approval proposed “local rules” that are “not inconsistent with the Colorado Rules of Civil Procedure or Practice Standards set forth in C.R.C.P. 121(c), nor inconsistent with any directive of the Supreme Court." (Emphasis added). Additionally, C.R.C.P. 121(c), sections 1-1 to 1-25, enumerates “District Court Practice Standards” designed to ensure consistency in standards governing practice throughout the state.
In addressing C.R.C.P. 121, the majority gives a crabbed scope to the term “local rules,” limiting such rules and “standing orders having the effect of local rules” to “procedural matters involving the actual dispute before the court.” See C.R.C.P. 121(b) and maj. op. at 825. In addition, the majority quotes extensively from committee comments to practice standards authorized by C.R.C.P. 121(c) in an effort to bolster its argument that C.R.C.P. 121 in its entirety is strictly limited to governance of litigation brought before the court. Maj. op. at 825 n. 7.
The majority’s reading of C.R.C.P. 121 is too narrow and overlooks the fact that subsequent to the adoption of C.R.C.P. 121, numerous judicial districts have sought and received approval from this court for various local rules that are not strictly limited to the conduct of litigation. This approval was necessary in light of the requirement of C.R.C.P. 121(b) that all “local rules” must be consistent with any directive of the Supreme Court and the requirement of CJD 85-01 that all such rules be approved by this court. Thus, following the adoption of C.R.C.P. 121 in 1988, chief judges sought and received this court’s approval for local rules governing matters not specified in C.R.C.P. 121(c), sections 1-1 to 1-25, such as the terms of the court, court hours, use of the law library, access to and use of court files, and regulation of firearms and weapons. See Colorado Local Court Rules, General Local Rules of the District Courts of the Second Judicial District, Sixth Judicial District, Seventh Judicial District, Ninth Judicial District, Tenth Judicial District, Fourteenth Judicial District, Nineteenth Judicial District and Twentieth Judicial District. The majority alter*828nately overlooks and inappropriately dismisses this court’s consistent practice of reviewing proposed local rules that go beyond concerns strictly relating to litigated cases. See maj. op. at 825 (“we need not pass upon every order issued by a chief judge regarding administrative matters which do not affect the rights of parties in disputes before the court”); maj. op. at 825 n. 8 (“It must be noted that it is of no import that several other district courts have included in their local rules of procedure prohibitions regarding firearms. Just because other jurisdictions have sought and received supreme court approval for local rules prohibiting firearms does not mean that all orders regarding firearms must be approved by this court to have effect”.)
The requirement that chief judges seek supreme court approval for proposed rules of practice and procedure stems from the overriding need for uniformity and consistency of such practices in courts throughout the state. Taken together, CJD 85-01 and C.R.C.P. 121 act as a check on the delegated powers of chief judges to ensure that one judicial district does not adopt, for example, more stringent or oppressive techniques for searching persons seeking access to courtrooms and court administrative offices than are conducted in neighboring judicial districts, or adopt different rules of procedure than are required in other districts. Consistency in practice and procedure throughout the judicial districts of this state lessens the “risk that lawyers and litigants will be subjected to a patchwork of rules establishing many different practices, potentially resulting in surprise or unanticipated local process when appearing in different districts.” Maj. op. at 825. This pronouncement is no less applicable to administrative rules such as the one at issue here today than it is to procedural rules.
It is noteworthy that the local rules approved by this court with respect to firearms and weapons have been essentially uniform. Rule 9 of the Rules of the District Court of the Second Judicial District is typical:
(a) No person, except an authorized law enforcement officer shall bring a firearm or weapon into the court building.
(b) No person, except a court security officer in the performance of his or her official duties shall bring a firearm or weapon into any courtroom, hearing room, chambers or clerk’s office without prior approval of the court.[2]
The standing order at issue in this case, however, is more restrictive. It prohibits all persons, including peace officers, from possessing a deadly weapon or firearm on an entire floor of a courthouse and provides for seizure and destruction of weapons, presumably those confiscated for violation of the terms of the standing order. See maj. op. at 823 n. 2. Nothing in CJD 85-01, either explicitly or implicitly, provides a chief judge with the authority to confiscate private property or to destroy firearms. Depriving a law enforcement officer of the ability to carry a weapon while engaged in performance of official duties presents a sensitive issue implicating important policy concerns deserving of this court’s attention. There is no assurance that the special provisions set forth in the standing order at issue here are necessitated by unusual local conditions.
Article VI, section 5(4), of the Colorado Constitution, together with the chief justice’s directives, provide the source and prescribe the scope of the authority to be,exercised by the chief judges of our individual judicial districts. Furthermore, both CJD 85-01 and C.R.C.P. 121 require this court’s approval for all proposed local rules. Therefore, because the chief judge must receive this court’s approval for the firearms ban set forth in his standing order, I would affirm the order of the district court ruling that the chief judge lacked the unilateral authority to issue the standing order banning firearms and vacating the order to show cause why the officer *829who allegedly violated the order should not be held in contempt. Accordingly, I respectfully dissent.
KIRSHBAUM, J., joins in this dissent.

. See maj. op. at 824 n. 5.

. Only Rule 9 of the Rules of the District Court of the Fourteenth Judicial District differs from the firearms and weapons regulation in effect in six other judicial districts. The Fourteenth Judicial District's local firearms rule provides as follows:
No person shall be allowed in any court facility of the Fourteenth Judicial District with a firearm or weapon of any kind. The sole exception shall be for law enforcement officers, and then only during the performance of their official duties.