Colorado Springs Chamber & EDC Opposes Attorney General’s Space Command Lawsuit with Backing of Colorado Springs City Council and El Paso County Commissioners

The Colorado Springs Chamber of Commerce & Economic Development Corp. plans to file an amicus brief opposing Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser’s lawsuit to block President Donald Trump’s 2025 order to move U.S. Space Command to Alabama.

The brief, also known as a “friend of the court” filing, cannot be filed until the U.S. Justice Department files its formal response to the suit in Denver federal court to Colorado’s lawsuit, which is expected by the end of March, said chamber CEO Johnna Reeder Kleymeyer. Both the Colorado Springs City Council and El Paso Commissioners late last year approved resolutions backing the chamber’s brief.

“In our opinion, this lawsuit has no merit and is politically motivated by the Attorney General. It doesn’t take the desires of the Pikes Peak region into account, and it can be detrimental to our future opportunities in the military and space,” Reeder Kleymeyer said. “Colorado Springs is a hub for aerospace and defense, and we want to partner with other states like Alabama on the next mission and national security.”

The lawsuit, filed in October, is one of more than 50 Weiser has filed to challenge Trump Administration actions in Colorado and alleges the move is an unconstitutional, politically motivated retaliation for the state’s mail-in voting system. Trump said the mail voting system was a “big factor” in ordering the move, which he originally ordered near the end of this first term and reversed in 2023 by former President Joe Biden.

“We didn’t ask for or want this lawsuit. Our voice and interests were not appreciated in the filing of this lawsuit,” Reeder Kleymeyer said. “There are major economic consequences to our region, and our interests are not represented in this lawsuit.”

Weiser amended the lawsuit Jan. 8, tying the Space Command move to a series of other Administration moves to cut more than $300 million in federal funding for childcare, low-income families and youth and vulnerable adults. He said the funding cuts were in retaliation for both the mail-in voting system and the state’s prosecution of former Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters for allegedly breaching the county’s election system.

“We have had five years of debate on the location of Space Command’s headquarters, and it is time to focus on new opportunities,” Reeder Kleymeyer said. “The (command’s) military personnel and their families have been in limbo for five years about where the headquarters will be located. We are putting those families and national security at the forefront of the process” with the brief.

Authored by former Colorado Springs City Council President Wayne Williams, the brief argues that Trump has the constitutional authority to move the headquarters and that “Political leaders use political factors in their decision, and this does not make the decisions unconstitutional.” The brief urges the court to dismiss Weiser’s lawsuit, which it alleges is “without legal basis.”

Reeder Kleymeyer said the chamber is focusing on future military projects such as Trump’s Golden Dome missile defense system that likely will involve several area military commands and installations as well as local defense contractors. The nonprofit also wants to ensure the area retains multiple operations of U.S. Space Force, including the headquarters of its Combat Forces Command.

“The President has discussed increasing the military budget to $1.5 trillion (from $900 billion this year) and Colorado Springs, given its current military assets, needs to be in that conversation,” Reeder Kleymeyer said.

Seth Harvey, the chamber’s chairman and CEO of local defense contractor Bluestaq, said, “While Alabama will be the future home of Space Command, the Pikes Peak region will still be a critical partner to future national security missions like the Golden Dome. Lawsuits and unnecessary conflict take the focus away from what is most important, which is the national security mission and the new emerging threats that we now face.”

U.S. Rep. Jeff Crank, R-Colorado Springs, said in September after the Space Command move was announced that about 1,000 people – 600 civilian and 400 military – will be included in the move to Huntsville but the transition could take at least three years and perhaps up to five years before a permanent facility at Redstone Arsenal is ready. The move won’t include any units with operations missions.

Reeder Kleymeyer said the chamber has spent the past several years working on mitigating factors where the area scored low in the Space Command site selection process, such as cost of living and multifamily housing availability. The local cost of living, compared with the national average, fell in the third quarter of 2025 to a nearly 6-year low and more than 5,000 new apartment units have been completed during the past four years.