Utah’s judicial system is under attack. A series of bills seeks to expand the power of government, weaken the ability of everyday Utahns to challenge government overreach and stretch thin our state’s legal norms.
In proposing these bills, some members of the Utah Legislature appear all too ready to participate in the newest political trend — caring little for future ramifications and delighting in chipping away at the checks and balances of the judicial branch. No matter how trendy, these efforts must be opposed.
SB203 significantly limits how groups can challenge harmful laws passed by the legislative branch. SJR9 needlessly narrows the window for plaintiffs to file suit to challenge an unconstitutional law, while SB204 creates special rules that make it easier for the Legislature to appeal a ruling against them. HB412 would eliminate a requirement that boards and commissions with oversight of the judiciary be bipartisan. HB512 and HB451 would increase opportunities for politicians to add their own nominees to the judiciary and make retention of qualified judges on the bench more difficult for voters, unnecessarily introducing party politics into and elevating the voices of partisan lawmakers in the judicial retention process. SB296 would inexplicably insert both the executive and legislative branches into the affairs of the Utah Supreme Court, encouraging more, rather than less, political interference into a branch of government that should be independent.
So many bills with a direct impact on the judiciary and its role in limiting legislative power have been proposed this session, it is difficult to view it as a coincidence. Coordinated effort or not, the result is a slicing away of one check or balance after another that, when taken together, will blunt the protections of Utah’s constitution.
Several of the preceding bills are on such shaky constitutional ground that they will almost certainly face lengthy legal challenges. These legal battles will cost taxpayers money unnecessarily, and, even if the laws survive challenge, none of these bills will have an upside for anyone living in the Beehive State beyond elected officials looking to expand their influence on judges, avoid accountability or skirt our state’s constitution.
Alarmingly, these bills are not locally driven responses to isolated policies in need of fixing. Instead, they appear to be targeted retaliation against previous efforts by Utahns to assert their constitutional rights and oppose government overreach. After Utah courts acted to protect the people’s rights, the Legislature has responded by attempting to insulate themselves from anyone who would check their power. And the backlash is not subtle. These bills, taken together, would result in weakening the judiciary’s ability to check the executive and legislative power balance, opening the door for lawmakers to more easily pass unconstitutional and unpopular laws with no consequences.
The Utah State Bar has rightly come out in opposition to the majority of these proposed bills, and lawyers and non-lawyers in the state should share its concern. More critically, members of the Utah Legislature should remember that the job they have been elected to do is to preserve the power of the people, not increase their own.
We must resist this political trend of expanding one branch of government at the expense of the judicial branch within the borders of our own state or it will become the norm. The norm will numb us, resulting in a system and set of laws biased toward a select few. Judicial norms and constitutional processes have never been flashy or trendy — but that is exactly why they must be preserved; these norms and processes will preserve us and our state. This latest power grab by the Legislature needs checking now and consistently until this trend reverses and the critical checks and balances of our state government are respected once again.