Chairmen Jordan and McClintock Investigate New Colorado Policy Forcing Attorneys to Support the State's Radical Sanctuary Agenda

WASHINGTON, D.C. – House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) and Subcommittee on Immigration Integrity, Security, and Enforcement Chairman Tom McClintock (R-CA) sent a letter to Colorado State Court Administrator Steven Vasconcellos demanding information about the new requirement in Colorado that all attorneys accessing the state's electronic court filing system must certify they will not use the information for federal immigration enforcement.

This certification commandeers private attorneys into Colorado's radical sanctuary policies, handcuffs federal officials from enforcing immigration law in Colorado, and violates fundamental free speech principles.

At least one Colorado attorney has already noted that he "cannot represent [his] clients, file lawsuits, access cases, [or] file documents in existing cases" without first agreeing to a policy that is unrelated to his legal practice and to which he is personally opposed. Another attorney described how a previous rollout of the certification requirement prevented her from filing a document without accepting the new terms, meaning that "attorneys against a deadline had no choice—accept the pledge or fail their clients."

The certification requirement is a form of compelled speech requiring an attorney to attest to a partisan political statement as a condition of practicing law. Given the dangerous nature of sanctuary jurisdictions and their active role in thwarting federal immigration enforcement, the Committee is concerned about how this new certification requirement will further obstruct the enforcement of federal law.

Read the letter to Vasconcellos here.

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