American Civil Liberties Union

A challenge to a misleading, far-reaching anti-equal opportunity measure in Colorado. The petition considered in this case is one of a series of anti-affirmative action initiatives being forwarded in 5 states for the fall of 2008, and is deceptively billed by its sponsors as a ban on "discrimination" and "preferences."

The petition sponsored by the so-called Colorado Civil Rights Initiative (CO-CRI) is one of a series of anti-affirmative action measures being forwarded by Ward Connerly and the American Civil Rights Institute as part of a national movement to roll back equal opportunity.  

Concerned that <?XML:NAMESPACE PREFIX = ST1 />Colorado voters would be deceived by the initiative’s misleading language and forced to consider numerous different issues in a single measure, advocates filed a legal challenge to the petition in July of 2007. The challenge emphasized the initiative’s prejudicial and misleading use of the phrase “preferential treatment” as a means to induce voters to dismantle a broad range of equal opportunity programs. A divided Supreme Court upheld the CO-CRI’s misleading ballot language in this past September, and the CO-CRI began to gather signatures to get its petition on the ballot immediately thereafter.  

On March 2008, the CO-CRI submitted its signatures to the office of the Secretary of State, which certified the measure. The initiative is slated to appear on the November ballot as Amendment 46.