ACLU of Colorado is deeply saddened by the death of Judd Golden, 70, on January 28, 2020. Judd was killed in a head-on collision on I-25 north of Pueblo when another car crossed the median. A long-time ACLU leader and volunteer, Judd was head of the Boulder Chapter of the ACLU for 20 years and a member of the chapter beginning in 1985. He was a volunteer cooperating attorney with the ACLU of Iowa starting in 1974, and moved to Colorado in 1984 as the Mountain States Counsel, a national ACLU staff attorney position based in Denver. Judd is survived by his wife Julie Golden, who also served in co-director positions at the ACLU in Iowa and Colorado.
Judd was known for his strong civil liberties leadership in Boulder and strong advocacy presence at the Boulder City Council. He played a key role in Boulder’s ordinance in 1989 barring random drug testing of employees by companies operating in the city without a clear connection to safety, later preserving the ordinance from attempts to weaken it. He was a cooperating attorney in CU v. Derdeyn in 1993, which found random drug testing of student-athletes unconstitutional. He advocated for Amendment 64 legalizing marijuana use in Colorado in 2012. During his his years in Boulder, Judd successfully advocated for and protected a policy barring CU coaches from leading students in group prayer, and his advocacy efforts addressed prisoner rights, criminalization of homelessness, surveillance cameras, protest rights, and other civil liberties issues. More recently, Judd worked on drug policy reform with the Coalition for Drug Testing Policy Reform and NORML.
According to Julie Golden, Judd had requested that no formal memorial service be held in the event of his death. Memorial gifts may be made to the ACLU Foundation of Colorado.