Colorado Pay To Play Still On Hold

Colorado's Amendment 54, passed in the last election and promoted as a way to stop "pay to play" contribution practices remains under a preliminary injunction which has now been reduced to writing last week (except a requirement that the state disclose large no bid contracts, which was upheld). A previous post on the ruling from the bench can be found here. While this could be appealed, it isn't clear if this will happen.

The measure was held unconstitutional on the grounds that it didn't draw a close enough nexis between actual pay to play contributions (something that the U.S. Supreme Court has held can be regulated in the campaign finance area) and other totally unrelated campaign contributions.

There is no word on when, or if, there are plans to appeal the ruling before the trial on the merits of a permanent injunction. Since the trial court found that the measure was unconstitutional, an appeal would go straight to the Colorado Supreme Court.