Serving the community since 1903
VOLUME 120 | ISSUE 27
WEEK OF JULY 6, 2023
DAY FOR PEDALS
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Law was unconstitutional, and legislators were warned BY JESSE PAUL AND ELLIOTT WENZLER THE COLORADO SUN
Cory Van Duyne stopped by Brighton’s Bike to Work day station on his e-bike on his way to work June 28, part of a statewide effort to encourage people to leave their cars at home. Van Duyne said rides to work all the time, and seeing PHOTO BY BELEN WARD more people out was fun. See more photos on page 6.
When a group of Colorado lawmakers in 2020 sought to end the state’s statute of limitations for lawsuits in child sex assault cases, some victims and victims’ advocates wanted them to try to go even further. Their request was that Colorado give victims of abuse for whom the statute of limitations had expired a window to sue not only their abusers, but also organizations that shielded the perpetrators or negligently allowed the abuse to continue. The nonpartisan Office of Legislative Legal Services, which offers state lawmakers legal advice, said such a window would violate the state’s constitution, which prohibits the General Assembly from reviving a claim for which the statute of limitations has run out. It turns out that opinion held merit. The Colorado Supreme Court last week struck down the part of Senate Bill 88, a law passed by the legislature in 2021, giving victims of child sex abuse dating back to the 1960s a three-year window starting on Jan. 1, 2022, to file lawsuits against their abusers and the institutions or organizations that failed to stop the abuse. The high court’s decision was unanimous. There were many concerns about the constitutionality of Senate Bill 88 as it was debated in the legislature, but the measure’s sponsors took the rare step of proceeding anyway, saying the severity of the crime demanded it. Dozens of pending or soon-to-be-filed cases were unraveled by the Supreme Court’s ruling. SEE WARNED, P9
VOICES: PAGE 8 | OBITUARIES: PAGE 9 | LIFE: PAGE 10 | CLASSIFIEDS: PAGE 20 THEBRIGHTONSTANDARDBLADE.COM • A PUBLICATION OF COLORADO COMMUNITY MEDIA
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