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IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURTFOR THE DISTRICT OF COLORADO
ANDY KERR 
, COLORADO STATEREPRESENTATIVE
NORMA V. ANDERSONJANE M. BARNES
, MEMBER JEFFERSON COUNTYBOARD OF EDUCATION
ELAINE GANTZ BERMAN
, MEMBERSTATE BOARD OFEDUCATION
PAUL BOOTHALEXANDER E. BRACKENWILLIAM K. BREGAR 
,MEMBER PUEBLO DISTRICT 70BOARD OF EDUCATION
BOB BRIGGS
,WESTMINSTER CITY COUNCILMAN
BRUCE W. BRODERIUS
, MEMBER WELD COUNTYDISTRICT 6 BOARD OF EDUCATION
TRUDY B. BROWNJOHN C. BUECHNER 
, PH. D., LAFAYETTE CITYCOUNCILMAN
STEPHEN A. BURKHOLDER RICHARD L. BYYNY, M.D.LOIS COURT
, COLORADO STATEREPRESENTATIVE
THERESA L. CRATER ROBIN CROSSAN
, MEMBER STEAMBOAT SPRINGS RE-2BOARD OF EDUCATION
RICHARD E. FERDINANDSENSTEPHANIE GARCIA
, MEMBERPUEBLO CITY BOARDOF EDUCATION
DICKEY LEE HULLINGHORST
, COLORADO STATEREPRESENTATIVE
NANCY JACKSON
,ARAPAHOE COUNTYCOMMISSIONER 
WILLIAM G. KAUFMANCLAIRE LEVY
, COLORADO STATEREPRESENTATIVE
MARGARET (MOLLY) MARKERT
,AURORACITYCOUNCILWOMAN
MEGAN J. MASTENMONISHA MERCHANT
, MEMBER UNIVERSITY OFCOLORADO BOARD OF REGENTS
MICHAEL MERRIFIELDMARCELLA (MARCY) L. MORRISONJOHN P. MORSE
, COLORADO STATE SENATOR 
PAT NOONANBEN PEARLMAN
,BOULDER COUNTY COMMISSIONER 
WALLACE PULLIAM
Civil Action No. ____________ 
 
2
FRANK WEDDIG
,ARAPAHOE COUNTY COMMISSIONER 
PAUL WEISSMANN
; and
JOSEPH W. WHITE
Plaintiffs,v.STATE OF COLORADODefendant.
COMPLAINTFOR INJUNCTIVE AND DECLARATORYRELIEFI.OPENING STATEMENT
1.This case presents forresolution the contest between direct democracy andrepresentative democracy. In 1992, Colorado voters adopted by initiative the Taxpayers Bill of Rights (“TABOR”),removingfrom their own legislature the power to tax and arrogatingthat power to themselves. However attractive it might have seemed, this assertionof directdemocracyis not permitted underthe United StatesConstitution,which requiresall states tohave a Republican Form of Governmentembodied in a representative democracy.2.At our nation’s birth, some three million citizens acted through their representatives at a constitutional convention to commit the nation to a government of representative democracy, a Republic, and rejected directdemocracy. Today, the Constitutioncarries the same commitment in a nation of over three hundred million people. Frustration withthe work of legislatures, whether federal or state, may indicate aneed for representativeinstitutions to be more effective, but that frustrationdoes not justify or permitresortingto directdemocracy.
 
33.Since the passage of TABOR in 1992,the State of Colorado has experiencedaslow, inexorable slide into fiscal dysfunction. Deterioration of the state’sfunding base has beenslowed by many attempts to patch, cover over,or bypass the straightjacket of TABOR.However, events have demonstrated that a legislature unable to raise and appropriate fundscannot meet its primary constitutional obligations or provide services that are essential for astate.4.The framers of the federal Constitution prescribed a Republican Form of Government for the nation at large and, in Article IV,Section4,of the United State Constitution,guaranteed a Republican Form of Governmentto each state.The federal statutes creating theTerritoryof Coloradoand then enabling creation of the State of Colorado required thatthe statehavea Republican Form of Government. The state cannot properly or constitutionally governitself without adheringto the requirements of a Republican Form of Government, which entailshaving an effective legislative branch.5.In prescribing a Republican Form of Government for the states, the framers of thefederal Constitution intended that each state have a government with power exercised through arepresentative democracy. James Madison explained in
 Federalist 10
the difference between adirect and a representative democracy and the reasons that a representative democracy wasessential to the Republic to be established by ratification of the Constitution:From this view of the subject it may be concluded that a puredemocracy, by which I meana society consisting of a smallnumber of citizens, who assemble and administer the governmentin person, can admit of no cure for the mischiefs of faction. Acommon passion or interest will, in almost every case, be felt by amajority of the whole; a communication and concert result fromthe form of government itself; and there is nothing to check theinducements to sacrifice the weaker party or an obnoxiousindividual. Hence it is that such democracies have ever beenspectacles of turbulence and contention; have ever been found
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