Lawsuit Win

June 28, 2025

A ruling by Denver District Court Judge A. Bruce Jones helps preserve the rule of law and protect immigrant communities, workers’ rights, and all Coloradans.

COWINS and other plaintiffs in a lawsuit against Governor Polis are welcoming a preliminary injunction that blocks the governor from continuing to direct state employees within the Department of Labor Standards and Statistics to comply with a subpoena from the US Department Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

In the words of Judge A. Bruce Jones, to comply with the “overly-broad” subpoena would be to “eviscerate the statute” Governor Polis signed into law.

The ruling protects these state workers by blocking their bosses, and the governor himself, from directing them to do work that would violate state law.

This injunction will hold until the lawsuit plays out in the courts.

Under cross examination by Governor Polis’ lawyers, COWINS President Diane Byrne was very clear that state employees caught up in this order to comply had been put in an impossible position of either refusing to carry out a directive from their boss, and risk retaliation, or break the law.

Judge Jones agreed, saying that state employees “face harm if they comply and they face harm, potential harm if they don't comply…there isn't a passage for them between Scylla and Charybdis here. They're going to be harmed. They're either going to be in the drink or on the rocks.”

Judge Jones said he would only rule with respect to DLSS, because he had not heard evidence from other CDLE divisions or other state departments.

But the implications of this ruling are clear: if it is a violation of the statute for some state employees to comply with this subpoena, it is a violation of the statute for any state employee to comply with this subpoena.

That’s why COWINS wrote to Governor Polis on June 26 to ask for confirmation that he will not direct ANY state employee to assist with the search or production of Personal Identifying Information for the purpose of producing documents in response to this subpoena.

We have a duty of representation to every one of the more than 27,000 state employees in our bargaining unit, and will protect you if you are implicated.

If you believe you may be implicated, or want more information about your rights, please call our confidential phone line at 720-908-6781.

Background

Colorado WINS was granted Intervenor-Complainant Status in a lawsuit filed by Scott Moss, director of the Division of Labor Standards and Statistics in Colorado’s Department of Labor and Employment.

The suit exposes unlawful cooperation between state officials and federal immigration enforcement, alleging that state employees have been ordered to “commit illegal acts” by sharing information protected by state law.

Section 24-74-103 of Senate Bill 276 clearly stipulates that State agency employees cannot “disclose or make accessible, including through a database or automated network, personal identifying information that is not publicly available information for the purpose of investigating for, participating in, cooperating with, or assisting in federal immigration enforcement.”

This law helps us do our jobs as state workers. Coloradans share their information with us because we’ve committed to keeping it confidential. Any violation of that trust will erode public confidence in state agencies and the public services we work so hard to provide.

The lawsuit documents how state employees were directed to violate that law in order to comply with a federal subpoena, “risking a wide range of professional and personal harms, including personal penalties of up to $50,000 per violation.”

Why COWINS Joined the Lawsuit

1. We have a duty of representation to every one of the more than 27,000 state employees in our bargaining unit, and state employees have been implicated in actions that violate State law.

2. Many state employees are themselves part of mixed-status families: we want to ensure that their personal identifying information is protected.

3. Coloradans trust us to protect their information, and any violation of that trust risks eroding public confidence in state agencies and the public services we work so hard to provide.

If you believe you may be personally implicated, or want more information about your rights, please call our confidential phone line at 720-908-6781.

Video and Media Coverage

Watch COWINS President Diane Byrne speaking at our June 26 news conference here.