The Colorado Court of Appeals affirmed a lower court’s decision that Secretary of State Scott Gessler overstepped his authority when he changed the financial disclosure threshold for issue committees to $5,000.

The previous threshold, established by constitutional amendment, required issue committees to register with the secretary of state and file financial disclosures if they accepted contributions or made expenditures of more than $200.

Secretary Gessler argued that the rule change was needed to clarify uncertainty in the law created by a federal appeals court ruling, but the court ruled that the change exceeded his rulemaking authority and voided the rule.