"It's Our Nature": Colorado Doubles Down On New Assaults On The First Amendment
Progressive policy ambitions meet practical realities as Americans weigh costs and consequences.
Mainstream coverage often treats Colorado’s latest speech fights as routine “civil rights updates,” as if the only question is whether people will use the right words and fall in line. That framing skips the obvious point: the state keeps using law as a tool to **compel speech** and punish dissent, then acts surprised when courts push back. Conservatives don’t have to agree with every disputed viewpoint to see the danger.
New Republican Times Editorial Board
"It's Our Nature": Colorado Doubles Down On New Assaults On The First Amendment Authored by Jonathan Turley, Colorado’s tourism slogan, “it’s our nature,” has a menacing meaning for free speech advocates.
Colorado is now arguably the most anti-free speech state in the union, pushing an array of measures attacking those with opposing social and political views. The irony is that the state has proved a bonanza for free speech with spectacular legal failures that reaffirmed rather than restricted the First Amendment.
Now, the Democratic legislature and governor are back with new unconstitutional measures, including a requirement that lawyers not share information with federal immigration officials as a condition for filing with state courts.
Colorado legislators and judges have spent years at...
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New Republican Times Editorial Board
Mainstream coverage often treats Colorado’s latest speech fights as routine “civil rights updates,” as if the only question is whether people will use the right words and fall in line. That framing skips the obvious point: the state keeps using law as a tool to compel speech and punish dissent, then acts surprised when courts push back.
Conservatives don’t have to agree with every disputed viewpoint to see the danger. When “public accommodation” rules start policing pronouns and when lawyers must certify they will not aid federal immigration enforcement just to file in court, the issue is viewpoint neutrality and public trust in institutions that are supposed to serve everyone.
Colorado’s leaders keep testing the limits of rule of law and federal supremacy. States can set policy, but they cannot turn access to courts into an ideological loyalty oath or quietly fence off information to obstruct lawful enforcement.
The principle at stake is simple: a government confident in its ideas should not need state-mandated conformity to sustain them.
Commentary written with AI assistance by the New Republican Times Editorial Board.