I’m deeply concerned about the recent ruling of Judge Gibson. She has no authority to approve or disapprove of legislative maps, and no authority to order the Legislature to change them.
Only the Legislature has constitutional authority to create legislative maps. So instead the judge imposed her own preferred outcome by fiat. The Utah Supreme Court must overrule this judicial overreach. But the problem is that the Utah Supreme Court itself opened the door to this unnecessary chaos by its own improper decree.
The Legislature has the responsibility and authority to create, change or remove laws. Yes, the people, through initiatives, also have the ability to create laws. But when an initiative passes, it’s just “a law” — it doesn’t have any special status, contrary to what the Utah Supreme Court tried to invent — and it can be legitimately changed, removed or replaced by the Legislature.
The Utah Supreme Court needs to have the intellectual honesty to vacate its own previous ruling and let the state return to the stability of representative government. Unlike independent commissions, the Utah Legislature is accountable to the people. If we don’t like how they draw boundaries or legislate, we can vote them out of office.
Gerald Larsen
Kearns