Alex Martinez

On Contract Enforcement

• Hanover School District No. 28 v. Barbour (2007)

Justice Martinez authored the 5-2 decision which found that a teacher whose contract was not renewed, but who did not recive timely notice of this failure to renew, (1) was entitled to an entire year's salary; (2) was under no obligation to attempt to mitigate her damages by finding another job; and (3) was entitled to a year's salary even though he immediately found an equal-paying job.

On Criminal Justice

• People v. Arias (2007)

Martinez wrote the majority opinion (in a 4-3 decision), which concluded, over the dissents of Justices Eid, Coats, and Rice that a police officer's search of the defendant and his vehicle, which resulted in the discovery of marijuana and cocaine, was unconstitutional, because the officer's stop was predicated only on the belief that the tree-shaped air freshener hanging from the defendant's-driver's rear-view mirror unlawfully obstructed the defendant-driver's vision.

• People v. Bradshaw (2007)

A 4-3 decision written by Justice Martinez concluded that the defendant's confession to sexual assault should not be admitted as evidence against him because the defendant indicated that he had a desire to speak with an attorney prior to making the confession. In his dissent, Justice Coats indicated that "rather than an isolated example of misapplication, the majority's application in this case seems to me to be typical of * * * its hostility or antipathy toward the use of confessions as a tool to solve crimes."

• People v. Humphrey (2006)

Martinez wrote the majority opinion (5-2), which concluded that, in a first-degree murder case, the defendant's confession to stabbing the victim was not made voluntarily, and therefore was not admissible against him at trial, where, even though the defendant waived her Miranda rights, the defendant's confession was made under "psychological coercion" and "emotional vulnerability" because the questioning officers informed the defendant that the victim had just died from the stabbing wounds; and that the "persistent questioning of the defendant after her emotional breakdown was psychologically coercive." The dissent shot back, noting that the majority's decision would "substantially impact the law of confessions," that "it is difficult for one who is told he is free to refuse to answer questions to complain that his answers were the product of intimidation or psychological coercion," and that "the defendant was not only willing to answer but consistently sought to excuse her own conduct."

On Illegal Immigration

• In the Matter of the Title and Ballot Title and Submission Clause for 2005-2006 #55 (2006)

In a bitterly disputed 4-2 decision authored by Justice Martinez, the court struck down a citizen-sponsored ballot measure that, if passed, would have prohibited Colorado from providing non-emergency government services to illegal immigrants. The Majority characterized the measure as violative of the Colorado's single subject rule because it contained "at least two subjects," that it viewed as "unrelated:" "decreasing taxpayer expenditures" and "restricting unrelated administrative services."

On Property Rights

• Droste v. Board of County Commissioners the County of Pitkin, Colorado (2007)

Martinez concurred with the majority opinion, which concluded that because a county was justified in implementing a complete moratorium on the development of property in that county, so that the impact of development could be studied, even though the county did not specify when the moratorium would end, and even though Colorado law, specially the Land Use Enabling Act only provided for a maximum moratorium of six months.