Republican lawmakers introduced a package of changes to the Colorado Civil Rights Commission on Tuesday, all of which were shot down along party lines by Democrats, as legislation to reauthorize the contentious panel at the center of a U.S. Supreme Court case cleared its first hurdle.

GOP members of the House Judiciary Committee wanted to alter the commission’s makeup by mandating that lawyers or former judges represent more than half of those who serve on it and by making all of its seven commissioners subject to the state’s conduct rules for judges.

They also asked that the state Senate president, House speaker and chief justice of the Colorado Supreme Court have the ability to appoint commissioners alongside the governor.

The Republicans sought, as well, to strip the commission’s ability to adjudicate cases and pass that power to an outside judge.

Democratic members of the committee bristled at the requests, saying they would keep groups affected by discrimination from being represented on the commission.

Rep. Leslie Herod, D-Denver, said the package of amendments “dilutes the citizen involvement of the commission,” which is housed under the Colorado Division of Civil Rights.

“To limit their access to work for the community and serve on the Civil Rights Commission because they have not been afforded the same opportunities for education — especially advanced degrees like a law degree … — is faulty, in my opinion,” she said. “I think that there’s a lot of things we can look at to make the division stronger, and that is the right direction I would like to go. But to weaken the division’s ability to investigate, or their ability to enforce Colorado law is not something I believe any of us should stand for.”

But Republicans said their goal was just want to make the commission even-handed.

“We want to have it fair and impartial,” Rep. Yeulin Willett, a Grand Junction Republican, told the judiciary committee.

Assistant House Minority Leader Cole Wist, R-Centennial, said none of the amendments offered by his party undermined protections for any Coloradan. “In many respects, our courts may be a more appropriate place for these types of complaints to be heard largely because they are pro-plaintiff,” he said in response to Herod.

Separate from the amendments, the legislation continuing the commission without any changes from its current form passed by a vote of 10 to 1. Six amendments offered by the GOP each died by a 7-4 vote.

The Judiciary Committee will consider the legislation for passage to the full House at a later date.

Controversy surrounding the commission has been simmering since earlier this month, when Republican members of a powerful budget committee at the Capitol voted to withhold its money pending the current legislative review under a so-called sunset review, which evaluates the need for the continued existence of an office or program. The GOP says it wants changes to the panel and to see its latest iteration before signing off on funding.

Democrats have been rallying support for the panel, accusing Republicans of putting the commission and its mission in peril. (The GOP has said it doesn’t want to do away with the commission altogether.)

In the middle of the debate is the Civil Rights Commission’s central role in a U.S. Supreme Court case involving a same-sex couple and a wedding-cake baker in Lakewood.

The court is expected to rule in the spring on the case between baker Jack Phillips of Masterpiece Cakeshop and the commission, which sided with the gay couple Charlie Craig and David Mullins.