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SALT LAKE CITY — Utah lawmakers will meet in a special legislative session on Wednesday to discuss the possibility of putting a constitutional question to voters in November on the ballot initiative process.
In announcing the plans Monday, Senate President Stuart Adams and House Speaker Mike Schultz referenced a recent Utah Supreme Court ruling determining that Utah lawmakers overstepped their authority in changing a 2018 voter initiative on redistricting. Lawmakers are to discuss the possibility of a constitutional amendment in response at the special session, which, if created and approved by voters, would establish leeway for lawmakers to tweak voter-approved ballot initiatives.
"The Utah Supreme Court's new interpretation created uncertainty and ambiguity," reads the statement from Adams and Schultz. "This amendment provides a path for Utahns to weigh in and make their voices heard. To be clear, the proposed amendment restores the over 100-year-old effect of citizen initiatives. The initiative process will remain unchanged, and Utahns will continue to have the ability to propose and run ballot initiatives."
Monday's news drew a quick response from the League of Women Voters of Utah. The league, joined by other plaintiffs, filed the suit at the center of the dispute against state lawmakers over their changes to congressional redistricting maps created in 2021 by a special commission. The special commission had been created per a ballot question on redistricting, Proposition 4, that was approved by voters in 2018.
"We're just extremely disappointed that our Utah politicians are undermining the Utah Supreme Court ruling. This is all about keeping them clinging to power," said Katharine Biele, president of the League of Women Voters in the state. At the center of the dispute, as she sees it, is the power of Utah citizens to reform state government.
The push for Wednesday's special sessions stems from a unanimous July 11 Utah Supreme Court ruling overturning a district court decision that had dismissed one of the counts in the League of Women Voters lawsuit. The case is to face reconsideration in the lower court, but no determination has yet been made, and it's not clear what impact any change coming out of Wednesday's special session will have.
"The Supreme Court has said that the (2018) ballot stands, you know, that we won that particular issue, which is that the citizens have a right to reform government. That is in our Constitution," Biele said. "But what we don't know is how that will play out. That's what goes back to the lower courts."
With passage of Proposition 4, a commission was formed to draw political redistricting maps every 10 years. But lawmakers later watered down its role to an advisory one with SB200 in 2020 and then adopted their own maps during the redistricting cycle in 2021. Particularly irksome to some critics were changes to the four U.S. House districts in the state compared to what the commission proposed. The maps divvied Salt Lake County, the Utah Democratic Party's key stronghold, among the four districts.
"The 'cracking' of Salt Lake City eliminates political competition and divides a major community," the Princeton Gerrymandering Project said in an open memo when the maps were approved in 2021. Defenders of the changes, by contrast, had argued that divvying Salt Lake County among the four districts helped preserve a measure of power in the state's more rural corners.
Monday's press release from Adams and Schultz didn't spell out exactly how the constitutional amendment proposal might be worded.
However, the statement said the changes would "(r)estore and strengthen the long-standing practice that voters, the Legislature and local bodies may amend or repeal legislation." That gets to the heart of concerns of lawmakers like Adams and Schultz that the July 11 Utah Supreme Court ruling limits lawmakers' ability to alter ballot initiatives. The statement also emphasized that Utahns would still be able to run ballot questions.
Among other possible changes up for discussion at Wednesday's special session will be a provision prohibiting "foreign entities" from contributing to ballot questions, meant as a guard against "undue influence." The lawmakers will also discuss extending the period the public has to collect signatures to put questions on the ballot from 40 to 60 days.
Wednesday's special session is to start at 4:45 p.m.
