Well this makes my nerd brain hurt. After I've already gotten used to the new maps and written about them, the Colorado Supremes throw them out. It's now back to the the reapportionment commission to adjust the maps in accordance with the decision.
The full opinion is available here.
The criteria are in order: 14th Amendment (equal protection), the Voting Rights Act, Constitutional criteria on population deviation, keeping county splits to a minimum followed by keeping municipal splits to a minimum, compactness and communities of interest or "COI".
The larger counties are also entitled to a certain number of "whole" districts within their borders. For example, El Paso and Denver counties have similar populations and are entitled to 8 House seats and 4 Senate seats once you've rounded, so at least 8 House seats and 4 Senate seats must be contained entirely within each those counties.
The Court seemed to have a problem with putting "competitiveness" over the other criteria listed. They found that the plan had too many unnecessary county splits and unfairly split Colorado Springs between 8 districts instead of 5.
Chief Justice Bender (who appointed 4 of the members, including the sole Independent) and one other justice dissented in the decision. The dissent is worth a read. The best part below:
"In my view, a nonpartisan Commission is more likely to draw competitive political districts which would promote political fairness and would counterbalance any gerrymandering efforts. Hence, competitive legislative districts are the antithesis of gerrymandered ones. The creation of competitive legislative districts is an appropriate discretionary consideration for the Commission. The Commission’s report reflects testimony that competitiveness was significant to both the public and to the Commission’s decisions."
The Commission must now resubmit a map by December 6th at 6:00PM. Seriously, this is hell on my nerdy-dom, as it is also hell on those mulling a decision to run for the Colorado Legislature. Hoping the new map is closer to what the Democrats wanted than Republicans, but don't count on it as the Republicans tend to adhere to the "splits" rule more often (since it's beneficial to them). Might be worth looking at the other proposed maps now...
