SALT LAKE CITY (August 16, 2024) – Today, Sutherland Institute released the following statement:

“We understand that a special legislative session may be scheduled next week. Typically, special sessions are intended to address some pressing policy issue.

“As decisions are made about what issues may be included, Sutherland Institute strongly recommends the consideration of a constitutional amendment to correct the flawed understanding of the Utah Constitution’s principle of proper exercise of legislative power reflected in the Utah Supreme Court’s recent ruling in League of Women Voters v. Utah State Legislature.

“In that decision, the court determined that laws enacted by ballot initiative were ‘protected from undue … infringement’ from the Utah Legislature. In effect, the court determined that that Utah Constitution establishes two categories of fundamentally unequal law: (1) laws enacted by the Utah Legislature, which legislators may reform according to the constitutional legislative power vested in them by a vote of the people, and (2) laws enacted by ballot initiative, which legislators are constitutionally barred from changing without court approval. This bifurcated view of Utah law – aside from being constitutionally suspect – makes certain that bad public policy enacted by ballot initiative that fails to serve the public good cannot be corrected.

“The court’s ruling reflects a fundamental misunderstanding of the proper exercise of legislative power. Any amount of experience with lawmaking quickly shows that good public policy is rarely fully established when a law is initially enacted. Unforeseen consequences are a natural feature of our system of government – making the power to reform any new law an essential aspect of the reasonable understanding of the proper exercise of legislative power in our republic.

“The court’s ruling violates this commonsense principle of a sound constitutional system, and – as numerous Western states have experienced – will significantly harm the people of Utah as initiative-enacted “super laws” unleash unforeseen consequences on Utahns that legislators cannot correct without fear of violating the court’s ruling.

“To correct the Utah Supreme Court’s error, the Utah Legislature should immediately exercise its constitutional authority to place an amendment before voters that would ensure that elected lawmakers and the people themselves can properly exercise their legislative power to reform the law, no matter how that law was enacted.”

Contact Nic Dunn to coordinate for further statement and interviews.