DIRECT MARKETING ASSOCIATION v. HUBER
THE DIRECT MARKETING ASSOCIATION, Plaintiff,
v.
ROXY HUBER, in her capacity as Executive Director, Colorado Department of Revenue, Defendant.
No. 10-cv-01546-REB-CBS.
United States District Court, D. Colorado.
January 26, 2011.
ORDER GRANTING MOTION FOR PRELIMINARY INJUNCTIONROBERT E. BLACKBURN, District Judge.
This matter is before me on the Plaintiff's Motion for a Preliminary Injunction and Incorporated Memorandum of Law [#15]1 filed August 13, 2010. The defendant filed a response [#50], and the plaintiff filed a reply [#56]. Having considered the evidence, the parties' written arguments, the relevant law, and the oral arguments presented by counsel for the parties at a hearing held on January 13, 2011, I find and conclude that the motion for preliminary injunction should be granted. I. JURISDICTION & STANDINGI have jurisdiction over this case under 28 U.S.C. § 1331 (federal question). Although the defendant challenges the plaintiff's standing to pursue certain of its claims in this case, the defendant does not challenge the plaintiff's standing to present its claims under the Commerce Clause. The plaintiff seeks a preliminary injunction based only on its Commerce Clause claims. Therefore, I need not and do not address standing.
II. BACKGROUNDThe plaintiff, The Direct Marketing Association (DMA), asks the court to enjoin the defendant from enforcing the notice and reporting obligations imposed on many out-of-state retailers under a new Colorado law, now codified at § 39-21-112(3.5), C.R.S. (2010) (the Act), and under the concomitant regulations promulgated by the Colorado Department of Revenue (DOR) to implement the Act, 1 Colo. Code Regs. § 201-1:39-21-112.3.5 (2010) (the Regulations). A copy of the Regulations is attached to the DMA's motion [#15] as Exhibit 2. In general, the Act and Regulations require retailers that sell products to customers in Colorado, but do not collect and remit Colorado sales tax on those transactions, to report certain information about the customers' purchases from the retailer to each customer and to the Colorado Department of Revenue. DMA is an association of businesses and organizations that market products directly to consumers via catalogs, magazine and newspaper advertisements, broadcast media, and the internet. The Act and the Regulations will affect many members of the DMA. The defendant, Roxy Huber, is the Executive Director of the Colorado Department of Revenue, the state agency charged with enforcing the Act and the Regulations. The DMA alleges that certain requirements of the Act and the Regulations violate the constitutional rights of many members of the DMA. In its motion for preliminary injunction, the DMA relies on its allegation that the Act and the Regulations violate the rights of many of its members under the Commerce Clause of the United States Constitution. U.S. Const. art. I, § 8. The DMA asserts other claims in its complaint, but the DMA does not rely on those claims as bases for its motion for preliminary injunction.
1. "[#15]" is an example of the convention I use to identify the docket number assigned to a specific paper by the court's case management and electronic case filing system (CM/ECF). I use this convention throughout this order.