What can protect our families, our heritage, our way of life?
Perhaps high moral standards? Patriotism? Religion?Nope. A change in the Utah Constitution that will require a two-thirds, super-majority vote before any citizen initiative dealing with wildlife management can be set into law.
Utah voters will get a chance to approve such a constitutional change this November; for such an amendment passed the House on Wednesday with two votes to spare and, since it has already passed the Senate, automatically goes on the ballot.
But several House members got in their swipes before the super-majority ballot measure passed, 52-19.
This is a frightening bill, said House Majority Leader Dave Jones, D-Salt Lake. "What you are saying is that one way of thinking is right and should be protected over other ways of thinking," he said.
Sen. Leonard Blackham's bill would change the constitution only in one area. And it's needed, said Rep. Michael Styler, R-Delta, because some "outside, extremist" groups have been going around the United States and getting wildlife management issues placed on the ballot through citizen initiatives.
"Wildlife management should be based on good science" and not influenced by emotional issues, Styler said. He added that professionals at the state's Division of Wildlife Resources should make those decisions.
For example, in 1996 Idaho had a trapping measure on its ballot, as did Colorado. Both measures made the ballot through actions by "animal rights advocates - outsiders," proponents of the measure said.
While he denies he's targeting animal rights groups, Rep. Kevin Garn, R-Layton, is pushing a separate bill that would expand the number of counties where signatures have to be gathered in citizen initiative drives.
The Garn and Blackham bills, together, would make it significantly harder for animal rights groups to get measures passed in Utah.
And singling out one group - or one group's "thinking" - is bad legislation, says Jones.
"We don't require two-thirds votes (at the ballot box) for taxation issues; for term limits," he said.
He pointed out that any citizen initiative adopted at the ballot box is just a law, and legislators can change any law anytime it wants. Thus, any "bad science law" adopted by animal rights groups' heavy-handed lobbying and media blitzes can be changed and fixed.
What is good science to one person is foolishness to another, said Rep. Mary Carlson, D-Salt Lake. People can argue over the "good science of global warming, of the origin of life. What is good science? It's a nebulous term and we don't need two-thirds vote by citizens" to set it, she said.
But even the "possibility that outsiders could dictate to us our right to engage in hunting and fishing" is completely unacceptable, said Rep. Jordan Tanner, R-Provo.
Constitutional amendments, if approved by two-thirds vote in the House and Senate, as this bill has received, go directly to the ballot. Gov. Mike Leavitt has no signing or veto power over them.