POLITICS & ELECTIONS

Amendment D was not published properly and could have mislead voters, Utah Supreme Court says in full ruling

Oct 24, 2024, 4:36 PM | Updated: 6:08 pm

The Utah Supreme Court....

FILE - The Utah Supreme Court. (KSL TV)

(KSL TV)

SALT LAKE CITY — The Utah Supreme Court has ruled that the wording of Amendment D could have misled Utahns about what they were voting for and that it was not submitted properly, according to the justices’ full ruling made public Thursday.

While the Utah Supreme Court had previously released its decision to uphold Utah’s 3rd District Court’s ruling voiding Amendment D from Utah’s ballots, the full ruling was a strong rebuke of the legislature’s attempt to pass the ballot measure.

According to the court’s ruling, the justices worried that the language of Amendment D did not fully represent the power that voters were giving to the legislature. According to the ruling, the ballot title did not disclose to voters that Amendment D would “give the Legislature unfettered constitutional authority to amend or repeal any initiative, including those that reform the government.”

“In truth, Amendment D has no effect on the voters’ ability to amend laws; it speaks only to the Legislature’s ability to amend laws passed by initiative,” the ruling stated. “And Amendment D does not clarify the Legislature’s ability to do so; the amendment changes it by removing existing constitutional restraints on the Legislature’s power.”

The court also said the Utah Legislature did not follow “the constitutional prerequisites for putting Amendment D to a popular vote.” The option stated the Legislature did not follow Article XXIII Section 1 of the Utah Constitution, which requires lawmakers to publish the proposed amendment in local media promptly.

“The Legislature did not cause the amendment to be published as mandated by the constitution. The drafters of our constitution and the people who ratified it determined that the appropriate way to ensure that voters understood a proposed amendment was continuous publication of its full text in at least one newspaper in each county for two months prior to the election,” the ruling stated.

According to the ruling, the President of the Senate and the Speaker of the House posted Amendment D to a public notice website instead of using newspapers, as the Utah Constitution required.

The justices said they are not ruling on what Amendment D has a “policy choice” and what it can change, but how it was presented to Utahns and what they were voting for.

“We respect the Legislature’s constitutional role in proposing amendments and express no opinion on the wisdom of Amendment D. That is a matter for the voters to decide,” the ruling stated. “But the Utah Constitution allows that to happen only when the question is properly placed before them.”

President Stuart Adams’s office released a statement on the ruling, echoing his previous disappointment in the court’s decision.

“We are troubled and disappointed by the Court’s actions. Unfortunately, the Court took an important decision out of the hands of voters and paved the way for governance by initiative. We are committed to finding a path forward because we firmly believe our Founding Fathers created a republic and that Utah’s future should remain in Utah’s hands,” Adam’s said in a written statement.

While Amendment D will be on November ballots, any votes for it and Amendment A will be invalid.

Utah Supreme Court full Opinion of the Court ruling on Amendment D (2024) by Michael Houck on Scribd

Contributing: Lindsay Aerts, KSL TV

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Amendment D was not published properly and could have mislead voters, Utah Supreme Court says in full ruling