SALT LAKE CITY — Recently a Utah District Court Judge ruled on a lawsuit of an amendment that was to be voted on in November.
Amendment D was the result of a special legislative session that would give the Utah Legislature the authority to repeal voter-approved ballot initiatives.
Judge Dianna Gibson last week sided with voter rights groups who argued the language of the amendment going on the ballot was “misleading.”
One of the groups that filed suit against the amendment was the Utah League of Women Voters.
On KVNU’s For the People program last week, league president Katherine Biele noted the legislature’s latest appeal of the ruling to the Utah Supreme Court.
“It was actually kind of laughable, and I’ll put this in simple terms. This is what they said right at the beginning, ‘people decide elections, courts don’t.’ What I would say is that courts decide the law, people don’t.
“And that’s what the courts are doing, they are looking at the law, they’re not trying to decide elections. They are simply going by the law by the constitution of Utah,” she explained.
Biele said this lands squarely on the shoulders of the Utah Legislature.
“They knew what they were doing, they could have accepted it, they could have worked with their constituents. They are our representatives, and they are not representing us very well, are they?”
She said that voters need to call or email their representatives and say “We understand that this is happening, we want to help you understand what we need in our community.”
Get more information about the league at lwvutah.org.