Colorado’s colleges are now operating under the assumption that they are covered by Amendment 41, a strict ethics law approved by state voters in November 2006, following a state Supreme Court decision calling for the measure to remain in effect.

The amendment, which bars public officials from accepting gifts or favors, was initially interpreted as barring the children of any state employees from receiving certain scholarships. That interpretation prompted a lawsuit in February 2007. Under another interpretation, professors at public colleges who won Nobel Prizes would be barred from accepting any of the prize money. A University of Colorado spokesman said today that subsequent clarifying legislation had rendered those concerns moot.

But in a May 2007 ruling, a state district court judge, Christina M. Habas, had temporarily blocked enforcement of the measure while it was being challenged in court on First Amendment grounds. In a decision issued late last month, the Colorado Supreme Court held that Judge Habas had acted too quickly because, it said, the challenge to the law was premature.

The Supreme Court said that a five-member ethics commission that Amendment 41 calls for the state to establish “is not yet in existence, and has not yet had the opportunity to implement the amendment.” Therefore, the state’s high court held, it is too early for the courts to take up a lawsuit challenging the measure as overly broad and an unconstitutional limit on free speech. —Peter Schmidt