In In Praise of Fair Colorado: The Practice of Poetry, History, and Judging, Colorado Supreme Court Justice Greg Hobbs spells out our responsibilities as citizens—to each other and to the natural resources we all must share.
In this collection of essays, speeches, judicial opinions, poems, law review articles, scripts, letters, and magazine articles written over the past three decades, Justice Hobbs reveals his respect and love for the grandeur of nature, especially in his adopted home state of Colorado, and imparts the ongoing need to balance beneficial use of our natural resources with preservation.
He also lends his unique legal perspective to his writings, reminding the profession of its ethical and civic duties to the community and explaining the workings of our state's highest court. Even lay people will be fascinated by his court opinions, which address issues ranging from prior restraint in the Kobe Bryant case to whether a tent is a habitation for Fourth Amendment search and seizure purposes.
I. I’ve Seen the Mountains Falling
I’ve Seen the Mountains Falling Sense of Place Finding Colorado Motion for Appearance and Late Filing In Relief Mountains Call Colorado Comes Back Round Again A Poet with the Heart of a Fighter
II. The Great Divide Community
Welcome! Swearing-In The Practice of Poetry, History, and Judging Colorado’s Independent Judiciary Scouting for All Marriage of Maggie Fromholtz and Casey Vanderbeek Can’t You Feel the Ground Waking? Leadership Denver Graduation Settling In To See the Mountains: Restoring Colorado’s Clear and Healthy Air
III. Lawyers and Judges, Trail Guides and Mapmakers
Turning Forward On Starting Law School The River Trip of Your Life Ethics and the Law for Water and Environmental Lawyers Taking our Constitutional Light Bearers A Former Water Lawyer’s View of Torts Tribute to Clyde O. Martz Persuading the Decision-Maker Book Review: Thinking Like a Writer Swearing In New Attorneys
IV. Fishing and the Supreme Court
Out the Window Fishing and the Supreme Court—Making the Transition from Private Practice Protocols of the Colorado Supreme Court May Day Anniversary: On Being an Imminent Jurist Two of a Piece State Water Politics vs. an Independent Judiciary: Colorado and Idaho Experiences
V. Water and the West
One Body, One Spirit, Many Futures Historical Perspective on Western Land and Water Law Machu Picchu Book Reviews The Role of Climate in Shaping Western Water Institutions Mesa Verde Journal Book Review: Silver Fox of the Rockies: Delphus E. Carpenter and Western Water Compacts Inside the Drama of the Colorado River Compact Commission: Negotiating the Apportionment Prior Appropriation and Instream Flow: The Struggle to Integrate Instream Flow Rights into Western Water Law How Like a River, The Evolution of Western Water Law Tribute to Marc Reisner Delight for Waterbugs, A Colorado Education A Sonnet to a Problem River Lessons from History: How Drought Shapes Colorado Water Law and Policy A Primer on Colorado Water Law Celebration of Colorado’s Instream Flow Law Ev/Ann Long View Working with Water Where We Are, Where We’ve Been Additional Water Writings
VI. Constitutional Perspectives
I Am the First Amendment People v. Schafer Board of Education v. Wilder People v. Kobe Bryant Book Review: The Colorado State Constitution: A Reference Guide The Trial of the President
INDEX OF POEMS By Justice Hobbs
William Stafford’s Yarn I’ve Seen the Mountains Falling Welcome! On Being Sworn Judges Must Be Students Coloradans Code of the Passing Through People They Call Me Squaw Man Which Colorado Shall We Be? Out on the Road Today Fisherman’s Knot Of All the Stars Durable Goods Lewis and Ives Compass Our Own Peaches One’s Calling Canoe I Like the Feel of a Book Ellipse Turning Forward Graduation Lucy’s Civil Procedure Do Not Shy Easy on the Water Tables Polis Out the Window I Stand to the Waterfall The Phone Almost Never Rings Pool Talk about a Fix Muster Easy Strides Just Desserts One Body, One Spirit, Many Futures Carrying My REI Water Bottle Sixteen Fountains Pueblo People of Mesa Verde Good Colorado Headwaters Education A Divide Colorado Mother of Rivers The Ev/Ann Long View Come On Back All You Graces I Am the First Amendment
Greg Hobbs is a Justice of the Colorado Supreme Court. He serves as a co-convenor of the Western Water Judges Educational Project, Dividing the Waters, and is vice president of the Colorado Foundation for Water Education.
Justice Hobbs practiced water, environmental, land use, and transportation law prior to becoming a Justice on May 1, 1996. He is a graduate of Boalt Hall, University of California, Berkeley, J.D., 1971, Order of the Coif, Supreme Court Editor for the California Law Review; and the University of Notre Dame, A.B., History, 1966, magna cum laude. He taught sixth grade in New York City and served in the Peace Corps before law school. He was law clerk to Judge William E. Doyle of the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit, an enforcement attorney for the Environmental Protection Agency, a First Assistant Attorney General for the State of Colorado, and a partner with the law firms of Davis, Graham & Stubbs and Hobbs, Trout & Raley.
He served as vice chairman of the Colorado Air Quality Commission from 1982 to 1987 and, at various times, as a member of the Metropolitan Air Quality Council, Regional Air Quality Council, Metropolitan Transportation Development Commission, and the Colorado Governor’s Metropolitan Water Roundtable, Transportation Roundtable, Environment 2000 Citizen’s Advisory Committee, and Wilderness Air Quality Values Task Force. He is a frequent writer and speaker on water and environmental matters, and a member of the Colorado Authors’ League.
Justice Hobbs is a member of the Denver Bar Association, Colorado Bar Association, American Bar Association, a fellow of the Colorado Bar Foundation and American Bar Foundation, and a member of the American Bar Association’s Section of Environment, Energy, and Resources. He is the Colorado Supreme Court’s Liaison Justice to the Colorado Bar Association Board of Governors, the Judicial Advisory Council, and the Access to Justice Commission.
