Chair's Note: The Story Behind Amendment D

Chair's Note: The Story Behind Amendment D

As you know, Utah citizens have enshrined in the Utah Constitution the right to present a single issue to Utah voters using a ballot initiative process. The ballot initiative process is very difficult. It requires gathering thousands of signatures of voters across the State to even get the issue to appear on the ballot. If it does appear on the ballot, it still must be approved by a majority of Utah voters.

There have only been a handful of voter initiatives that made it to the ballot and not all of them were approved by UT voters.

 

Law Books

One voter initiative that did make it to the ballot and was approved by voters in 2018 was the creation of an Independent Redistricting Commission to draw fair maps for our congressional voting districts.  The Utah legislature immediately took the law passed by Utah voters and amended it to strip all power away from the Independent Redistricting Commission and give it only an advisory role. Notwithstanding its advisory role, the Commission held an extensive public process and presented some fair maps to the legislature for consideration.  The legislature ignored all of the work of the Commission and approved their own maps, drafted in secret without any public input.

 

A lawsuit was brought against the Utah legislature with two main claims:  1.  The maps secretly drawn and approved by the UT legislature are unfair and unconstitutional and 2. If Utah voters go to the trouble of getting a voter initiative on the ballot and it is approved by a majority of Utahns (hundreds of thousands of voters) it is unconstitutional for the UT legislature simply to ignore it and re-write it.

 

This summer - the Utah Supreme Court agreed with the plaintiffs on argument #2 (still waiting to see how the court rules on argument #1).  This was a huge victory for Utah voters - the UT legislature no longer has the authority to simply ignore, amend and supersede initiatives passed by voters.

 

Unfortunately, the Utah legislature was so incensed by this ruling that they accused the Utah Supreme Court of being "activist" judges (even though the Utah legislature was the body to confirm their appointments as judges).  The Republican leadership of the Utah legislature decided to take matters into their own hands to try to overrule the Utah Supreme Court.  The only way they could do this was to change the Utah Constitution itself.

 

So, the Utah legislature called an "emergency" meeting (ironic because the only "emergency" was that they were being forced to listen to Utah voters).  In this meeting, the Republican supermajority in the Utah legislature proposed an amendment (that became known as "Amendment D") to revise the Utah Constitution to expressly give the Utah legislature that Constitutional right to overrule and change any initiative passed by voters.

 

It is shocking they would even propose Amendment D.  It is a power grab that takes power from citizens and gives it solely to the legislature - eliminating an important "check and balance" in our government.

 

To make matters worse, the legislature rushed Amendment D through the process with almost no public input, they changed rules to get it on the ballot (the deadline for making changes to the ballot had already passed), they ignored the constitutional requirement to publish the amendment for at least 60 days and as a final slap in the face to Utah voters, the legislature used intentionally misleading language on the ballot to deceive Utah voters into giving away their power for citizen initiatives.  The ballot language (drafted by the legislative leaders themselves) attempted to trick Utah voters into believing that approving Amendment D would actually "strengthen" the voter initiative process, when in fact it was doing the exact opposite. 

 

When the parties to the original lawsuit saw how the Utah legislature was trying to trick Utah voters into giving away the very rights the Utah Supreme Court had just confirmed were held by Utah voters, they filed a second lawsuit - this time arguing that Amendment D was improperly rushed through without proper process and publication and that the language on the ballot was intentionally trying to trick Utah voters.  Thankfully, the plaintiffs recently won this second lawsuit.  The lower court and the Utah Supreme Court both agreed with the plaintiffs and ruled that Amendment D is void because the legislature rushed it through the process, ignored required publication rules and used misleading language on the ballot.  After losing this second lawsuit, the Republican leaders in the Utah legislature issued a statement expressing disdain for the Utah Supreme Court.  

 

So what happens next?  Two things:  First, watch for another version of Amendment D to be brought up for a vote again in 2025 along with another battle over the fairness of the language used to describe the amendment.  Second, and more importantly, there has been chatter on social media in Republican leadership circles about attacking the judicial branch of government (how dare the courts tell us what we can and can't do!).  Ideas being considered include changing how judges are appointed (perhaps having them elected instead of appointed) and taking other measures to make sure the judges are under pressure to issue rulings consistent with how the Republican legislature wants the rulings to be.  Hopefully the attacks on the judicial branch never come to fruition, but we should be on guard.  Converting the judicial branch of government into an extension of the legislature that just does what the legislature wants would be incredibly damaging to our system of government.

 

One of the 5 E's of the United Utah Party is Ethical Government.  It is at the heart and soul of our party.  We support proper checks and balances.  We support transparency in government.  Unfortunately, we have seen a disregard for those principles by the Utah legislature during the Amendment D process.  We will continue to stand for good and ethical government and appreciate your support as we do this.

 

We encourage you to share this message with your friends and family and to find and support legislators and candidates who opposed Amendment D.

 

Ladd Johnson
Chair, United Utah Party

 

For additional information, please see this op-ed by Representative Marsha Judkins, a member of the Utah House of Representatives.

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