Colorado Amendment 41 (2006)

Amendment 41 is a citizen initiative adopted by Colorado voters in the 2006 general election. Amendment 41 has three main sections.

Amendment 41's "gift ban" places new restrictions on gifts, broadly defined, given to Colorado state and local elected officials and employees in executive and legislative branches. Such persons are prohibited from receiving gifts with value exceeding $53 per year, subject to an adjustment for inflation. Gifts from lobbyists are banned regardless of amount. There are several exceptions to the gift ban, including an exception for gifts given between personal friends and relatives on special occasions and another for travel paid for by non-profits that receive less than 5% of their revenue from corporate donations or by other state or local governments.

Amendment 41's "anti-revolving door" provision prohibits statewide elected officeholders from lobbying certain state elected officials for pay for two years after leaving office.

Finally, Amendment 41 creates the Colorado Independent Ethics Commission. Four members of the Commission are appointed by the State House, State Senate, Governor and the Chief Justice of the Colorado Supreme Court. The fifth member must be an official or employee of a local government and is selected by the other four members. Members serve staggered four-year terms and receive no salary. No more than two Commissioners may be members of the same political party.

The Ethics Commission issues advisory opinions and letter rulings to covered individuals or others asking whether a proposed course of conduct would violate Amendment 41 or any other ethical standard of conduct or reporting requirement. The Ethics Commission is also required to investigate and hold a hearing on all non-frivolous complaints alleging violations of the gift ban, the anti-revolving door provision, or any other standard of conduct or reporting requirement in state law.

The Ethics Commission was originally placed in the Colorado Department of Personnel and Administration. In June 2010, it was moved to the Judicial Branch.

The state legislature, in the same legislation stating its interpretation of the initiative, asked the Colorado Supreme Court to resolve the dispute over the constitutionality of this implementing legislation, but it declined to act.

A state trial court of general jurisdiction in Denver, Colorado issued a preliminary injunction against the enforcement of Amendment 41 on U.S. constitutional grounds in 2007. The state court in this case issued a preliminary injunction banning enforcement of the gift ban on First Amendment grounds during the pendency of the litigation. [1] On appeal to the Colorado Supreme Court, the preliminary injunction was then vacated on February 25, 2008, on the grounds that the suit was not ripe prior to the organization of the independent ethics commission, without reaching the merits of the constitutionality of Amendment 41 [2].

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