Colorado has reversed a controversial requirement that attorneys using the state’s court e-filing system certify they would not use court information to assist federal immigration enforcement efforts. The verification requirement was removed from state law after Colorado Democratic Gov. Jared Polis signed House Bill 26-1276, creating a carveout for attorneys seeking to use the filing system.
Background
Multiple attorneys spoke out in April after the state’s e-file system required them to certify they would not share such personal information with the federal government — a requirement Colorado officials said stemmed from the Protect Civil Rights Immigration Status Act of 2025. Colorado Springs attorney Ian Speir told Fox News Digital that Colorado appeared to be “unlawfully coopting private attorneys across the state to further its anti-federal sanctuary policies,” while noting that he doesn’t practice criminal nor immigration law but couldn’t sign into the state court system without “saluting the resistance.”
The House Judiciary Committee took note of Fox News Digital’s reporting on the matter and notified Colorado officials in April that their immigration-related certification wrongly “commandeers private attorneys into Colorado’s radical sanctuary policies, handcuffs federal officials from enforcing immigration law in Colorado, and violates fundamental free speech principles.” Rep. Tom McClintock, R-Calif., the chairman of the Judiciary Committee’s immigration integrity, security and enforcement subcommittee, told Fox News Digital in a Monday interview that he was pleased to see Colorado reverse itself but warned that the incident is just the latest volley in sanctuary states’ battle against federal supremacy.
Reaction
The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), celebrated the news and noted it was prepared to file a lawsuit against the state government in Denver on First Amendment grounds if it did not repeal the provision. “Colorado made the right move removing the certification requirement, which was a clear viewpoint-based regulation that violated the First Amendment,” the Washington-based group said in a statement. Speir added that while the state may be able to tell its own public lawyers what to say to ICE, he, as a private attorney, “work for my clients, not the government.”
Original reporting: Fox News (HLL/CB) — read the source article.
