New Colorado laws changing how many roommates can live together, where people can carry firearms and the maximum strength of a food preservative that’s often misused in suicides will go into effect Monday, nearly two months after lawmakers wrapped up their work for the year.
Twenty-one new laws that the legislature passed this year will kick in at the start of July. Among them are laws covering the state plumbers board, creating a new Colorado Disability Opportunity Office and adding gender identity to the state’s protected classes in bias-motivated crimes.
Several laws passed in previous years will also go into full effect Monday, including a measure approved in 2021 that allows Colorado consumers to opt out of having their personal data sold or used to generate targeted advertising. Another bill passed in 2021, which banned single-use plastic bags at checkout lines at the start of this year, has another provision taking effect Monday that will allow local governments to enact even stricter plastic bag limits.
Here are six other new laws set to go into effect:
Occupancy limits
One of the marquee housing and land-use reforms passed this year, House Bill 1007 prohibits local governments from limiting how many unrelated adults can live together in an apartment or housing unit. For college towns like Boulder or Fort Collins, that means cities generally can’t cap how many roommates can live together, except for health and safety reasons.
Roughly two dozen Colorado cities and towns had occupancy limits, though only a few — including Fort Collins — actively enforced them, lawmakers and advocates said. The measure was sponsored by Democratic Reps. Manny Rutinel and Javier Mabrey, together with Sens. Tony Exum and Julie Gonzales.
Sexual assault cases
Earlier this winter, lawmakers and advocates stood next to a rack of women’s clothing in the state Capitol building and described House Bill 1072. It blocks defendants and defense attorneys from using what a sexual assault victim was wearing as evidence of consent in court. The new law also tightly limits how the victim’s previous sexual history, including with the defendant, can be used in court.
The new law was sponsored by Democrats Rep. Shannon Bird and Sen. Rhonda Fields and Republicans Rep. Lisa Frizell and Sen. Barbara Kirkmeyer.
Limit on poison
Sodium nitrite is a preservative used often used in curing meats. But in higher concentrations, it can be fatal when ingested by people, and it’s increasingly been used in suicides here and elsewhere in the United States. That’s made easier by the availability of the higher-potency substance for purchase online or in sporting good stores.
Starting Monday under House Bill 1081, those higher potencies will no longer be available in Colorado except for approved commercial purposes. The bill was sponsored by Democrats Rep. Judy Amabile and Sen. Dylan Roberts and Republicans Rep. Marc Catlin and Sen. Byron Pelton.
Fewer guns in sensitive spaces
One of several gun-reform bills passed this year, Senate Bill 131, prohibits the open or concealed carrying of firearms in public or private schools, on university and college campuses, and in child care centers. The new prohibition also covers certain government buildings and the state Capitol, in which several Republican lawmakers have attested to carrying firearms.
Several have had gun mishaps, too: One lawmaker dropped a gun while running to vote two years ago, and another left a loaded weapon in a Capitol bathroom earlier this year.
The bill, which was significantly narrowed during its journey through the Capitol, does allow local governments to opt out of its provisions. The Douglas County Board of Commissioners did so in May.
Elections protections
Two election-related bills kick into effect Monday. One, House Bill 1147, requires political ads and messaging to prominently disclose when they include a “deepfake,” meaning an artificially generated picture, video or voice that replicates a real person.
That’s a growing problem as the use and capability of artificial intelligence has erupted in recent years. The Federal Communications Commission this spring fined a political consultant $6 million for mimicking President Joe Biden’s voice in a campaign robocall in New Hampshire.
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The second election law, passed as House Bill 1150, extends existing criminal penalties and fines to people who participate in attempts to organize false slates of presidential electors. Essentially, that means anyone who attempts what a group of lawyers and officials tried in 2020 in support of then-President Donald Trump will face specific criminal liability in Colorado.
Every four years, a slate of presidential electors from each state (plus Washington, D.C.) is tasked with casting formal Electoral College votes for the candidate who won that state in the election.
But after the 2020 election, some pro-Trump Republicans and their lawyers backed a plan to have false electors in several states advance alternative — and flatly wrong — certificates that would switch their states’ electoral college votes from Democrat Joe Biden to Trump. A number of officials involved in that fraudulent plot have since been indicted.
Colorado’s new law takes existing crimes like perjury or forgery and expands them to include a person seeking to participate in a false elector scheme.
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