Government of Colorado | |
---|---|
Part of | United States of America |
Constitution | Constitution of Colorado |
Legislative branch | |
Name | Legislature |
Type | Bicameral |
Meeting place | Colorado State Capitol |
Upper house | |
Name | Senate |
Presiding officer | James Coleman, President |
Lower house | |
Name | House of Representatives |
Presiding officer | Julie McCluskie, Speaker |
Executive branch | |
Head of state and government | |
Title | Governor |
Currently | Jared Polis |
Appointer | Election |
Cabinet | |
Name | Cabinet |
Leader | Governor |
Deputy leader | Lieutenant Governor |
Headquarters | State Capitol |
Judicial branch | |
Name | Judiciary of Colorado |
Courts | Courts of Colorado |
Supreme Court of Colorado | |
Chief judge | Monica Márquez |
Seat | Denver |
The Government of Colorado is organized into three branches: the executive branch of the Governor, the legislative branch of the General Assembly, and the judicial branch of the Supreme Court and lower courts. This government was created by the Constitution of the State of Colorado, and allows for direct participation of the electorate by initiative, referendum, recall and ratification.
The five statewide elected officers are:
The Lieutenant Governor is elected on a ticket with the Governor. All statewide elected officers serve four-year terms.
There are also elected members of the Colorado State Board of Education, and the Regents of the University of Colorado are elected from districts coterminous with Colorado's congressional districts or at large. As a result, the Governor does not have direct management authority over either the Department of Education or any of the state's institutions of higher education.
The executive branch is otherwise composed of the principal departments: [1]
Regulations are published in the Colorado Register and codified in the Code of Colorado Regulations (CCR).
The legislative body of Colorado is the Colorado General Assembly made up of two houses, the House of Representatives and the Colorado Senate. Members of the House are elected for two year terms from single-member, equal population districts. Approximately half of the members of the state senate are elected each two years to four year terms from single-member, equal population districts. The House of Representatives has 65 members and the Senate has 35 for a total of 100 legislators in Colorado.[ citation needed ] The session laws are published in the Session Laws of Colorado . [2] The laws of a general and permanent nature are codified in the Colorado Revised Statutes (C.R.S.). [2]
In addition to providing for voting, [3] [4] the people of Colorado have reserved to themselves the:
The judiciary of Colorado is defined by Article VI of the Colorado Constitution as well as the law of Colorado. The administration of the state judicial system is the responsibility of the Chief Justice of the Colorado Supreme Court as its executive head, and is assisted by several other commissions. Colorado courts include the:
All of the courts above, other than municipal courts and Denver's county court, are part of the state court system. In Denver, county and municipal courts are integrated and are not part of the state court system for administrative purposes, and the Denver Probate Court and the Denver Juvenile Court have jurisdiction over probate and juvenile matters, respectively. Outside Denver, these matters are within the jurisdiction of the district courts.
Most crimes in Colorado are prosecuted by a district attorney. One district attorney is elected for each of the state's 22 judicial districts in a partisan election. The state attorney general also has power to prosecute certain crimes, and in rare circumstances a special prosecutor may be appointed to prosecute a crime on a case by case basis. Municipal ordinance violations are prosecuted by city attorneys.
Colorado is divided into 64 counties, two of which (Pitkin and Weld) are home rule. Counties are important units of government in Colorado since the state has no secondary civil subdivisions, such as townships. Two of these counties, the City and County of Denver and the City and County of Broomfield, have consolidated city and county governments.
The 273 Colorado municipalities operate under one of five types of municipal governing authority: [7]
A municipality may extend into multiple counties. There are no township governments in Colorado, but there are more than 4,000 special districts. See Active Colorado Local Governments.
Other political subdivisions include the University of Colorado Hospital Authority, which provides patient care through UCHealth (University of Colorado Health), and the Denver Health And Hospital Authority (Denver Health), which operates a hospital south of downtown Denver among other facilities.
There are two federally recognized tribes in Colorado: the Southern Ute Indian Tribe and the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe. [8] There are no other known state-recognized tribes.
Broomfield is a consolidated city and county located in the U.S. state of Colorado. It has a consolidated government which operates under Article XX, Sections 10–13 of the Constitution of the State of Colorado. Broomfield's population was 74,112 at the 2020 United States census, making it the 15th most populous municipality and the 12th most populous county in Colorado. Broomfield is a part of the Denver–Aurora–Lakewood, CO Metropolitan Statistical Area and the Front Range urban corridor.
The government of the U.S. state of Ohio consists of the executive, judicial, and legislative branches. Its basic structure is set forth in the Constitution and law of Ohio.
Ohio county government is the structure of official managerial and legal bodies of the counties of Ohio, USA. It is marked by a loose organization and a diffusion of power, the basic framework not having been changed since the nineteenth century. The Ohio Constitution allows counties to set up a charter government as many cities and villages do, but only Summit and Cuyahoga counties have done so. Counties operating under a constitutional government do not possess home rule powers and can do only what has been expressly authorized by the Ohio General Assembly. However, Article X of the Ohio Constitution gives county government benefits similar to those conferred on cities and villages under the home rule amendments of 1912.
The government of Florida is established and operated according to the Constitution of Florida and is composed of three branches of government: the executive branch consisting of the governor of Florida and the other elected and appointed constitutional officers; the legislative branch, the Florida Legislature, consisting of the Senate and House; and the judicial branch consisting of the Supreme Court of Florida and lower courts. The state also allows direct participation of the electorate by initiative, referendum, and ratification.
The Government of Denver makes up the public sector of the City and County of Denver, Colorado.
The government of Texas operates under the Constitution of Texas and consists of a unitary democratic state government operating under a presidential system that uses the Dillon Rule, as well as governments at the county and municipal levels.
The government of the U.S. State of Oklahoma, established by the Oklahoma Constitution, is a republican democracy modeled after the federal government of the United States. The state government has three branches: the executive, legislative, and judicial. Through a system of separation of powers or "checks and balances," each of these branches has some authority to act on its own, some authority to regulate the other two branches, and has some of its own authority, in turn, regulated by the other branches.
The state government of Georgia is the U.S. state governmental body established by the Georgia State Constitution. It is a republican form of government with three branches: the legislature, executive, and judiciary. Through a system of separation of powers or "checks and balances", each of these branches has some authority to act on its own, some authority to regulate the other two branches, and has some of its own authority, in turn, regulated by the other branches. The seat of government for Georgia is located in Atlanta.
The Government of the State of New York, headquartered at the New York State Capitol in Albany, encompasses the administrative structure of the U.S. state of New York, as established by the state's constitution. Analogously to the US federal government, it is composed of three branches: executive, legislative, and judicial. The head of the executive is the governor. The Legislature consists of the Senate and the Assembly. The Unified Court System consists of the Court of Appeals and lower courts. The state is also divided into counties, cities, towns, and villages, which are all municipal corporations with their own government.
The Judiciary of Colorado is established and authorized by Article VI of the Colorado Constitution as well as the law of Colorado. The various courts include the Colorado Supreme Court, Colorado Court of Appeals, Colorado district courts, Colorado county courts, Colorado water courts, and municipal courts. The administration of the state judicial system is the responsibility of the Chief Justice of the Colorado Supreme Court as its executive head and is assisted by several other commissions. In Denver, the county and municipal courts are integrated and administratively separate from the state court system.
The government of Virginia combines the executive, legislative and judicial branches of authority in the Commonwealth of Virginia. The current governor of Virginia is Glenn Youngkin. The State Capitol building in Richmond was designed by Thomas Jefferson, and the cornerstone was laid by Governor Patrick Henry in 1785. Virginia currently functions under the 1971 Constitution of Virginia. It is Virginia's seventh constitution. Under the Constitution, the government is composed of three branches: the legislative, the executive and the judicial.
The government of Vermont is a republican form of government modeled after the Government of the United States. The Constitution of Vermont is the supreme law of the state, followed by the Vermont Statutes. This is roughly analogous to the Federal United States Constitution, United States Code and Code of Federal Regulations respectively. Provision is made for the following frame of government under the Constitution of the State of Vermont: the executive branch, the legislative branch, and the judicial branch. All members of the executive and legislative branch serve two-year terms including the governor and senators. There are no term limits for any office.
Michigan has a republican form of government with three branches of government: the executive branch consisting of the governor of Michigan and the other independently elected constitutional officers; the legislative branch consisting of the House of Representatives and Senate; and the judicial branch consisting of the one court of justice. The state also allows direct participation of the electorate by initiative, referendum, recall, and ratification.
The government of Nevada comprises three branches of government: the executive branch consisting of the governor of Nevada and the governor's cabinet along with the other elected constitutional officers; the legislative branch consisting of the Nevada Legislature which includes the Assembly and the Senate; and the judicial branch consisting of the Supreme Court of Nevada and lower courts.
Same-sex marriage has been legally recognized in Colorado since October 7, 2014. Colorado's state constitutional ban on same-sex marriage was struck down in state district court on July 9, 2014, and by the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado on July 23, 2014. The Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals had already made similar rulings with respect to such bans in Utah on June 25 and Oklahoma on July 18, which are binding precedents on courts in Colorado. On October 6, 2014, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear the Tenth Circuit cases, and the Tenth Circuit lifted its stay. On October 7, the Colorado Supreme Court and the Tenth Circuit cleared the way for same-sex marriages to begin in Colorado.
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is governed by a set of political tenets laid down in its state constitution. Legislative power is held by the bicameral General Court, which is composed of the Senate and House of Representatives. The governor exercises executive power with other independently elected officers: the Attorney General, Secretary of the Commonwealth, and Auditor. The state's judicial power rests in the Supreme Judicial Court, which manages its court system. Cities and towns act through local governmental bodies to the extent that they are authorized by the Commonwealth on local issues, including limited home-rule authority. Although most county governments were abolished during the 1990s and 2000s, a handful remain.
Colorado district courts are the state trial courts of general jurisdiction in the U.S. state of Colorado, and are similar to what are referred to as "circuit courts" or other terms in other U.S. states.
The government of North Carolina is divided into three branches: executive, legislative, and judicial. These consist of the Council of State, the bicameral legislature, and the state court system. The Constitution of North Carolina delineates the structure and function of the state government.
The government of Washington State is the governmental structure of the State of Washington, United States, as established by the Constitution of the State of Washington. The executive is composed of the Governor, several other statewide elected officials and the Governor's cabinet. The Washington State Legislature consists of the House of Representatives and State Senate. The judiciary is composed of the Washington Supreme Court and lower courts. There is also local government, consisting of counties, municipalities and special districts.