ALEXANDRIA, Va. — CCP Legal Director Allen Dickerson will argue before the Colorado Supreme Court tomorrow, May 8, at 10:00am. The case is Coalition for Secular Government v. Gessler.
The case stems from the activities of a Colorado non-profit, the Coalition of Secular Government (“CSG”), which promotes a secular understanding of individual rights, including freedom of conscience and the separation of church and state. In 2010, CSG founder Diana Hsieh, Ph.D., and her friend Ari Armstrong authored a lengthy public-policy paper discussing philosophical objections to the personhood movement and its political activities, including a ballot initiative put before Colorado’s voters that year.
The CCP legal team originally filed a complaint alleging that, even though CSG planned to raise no more than $3,500, nearly all of which would go toward updating and disseminating an expanded and updated copy of itspublic policy paper, the state of Colorado appears to demand that CSG register as an issue committee, with all the paperwork burdens and restrictions that status entails. Dickerson noted at the time that such a result is unconstitutional under the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and burdensome, particularly for a small group seeking only to exercise their right to speak.
In that case, Senior Judge John L. Kane of the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado asked the state Supreme Court to “provide clear guidance… as to the scope and meaning” of the state provisions challenged by CSG. The Supreme Court agreed to the request.
Tomorrow, the Court will consider four questions:
