State Republican lawmakers say they believe a single Utah Supreme Court ruling threatens to sabotage its system of governance.
In the summer of 2024, the court issued a decision that radically changed the balance of power in the state, House leaders say.
It prohibited elected representatives from amending ballot initiative laws that alter the structure of government.
On Wednesday, state GOP legislative House leadership said nothing else will do more to derail the Beehive State.
“What the court has done on initiatives will undermine what is happening in the state faster than anything,” state House Majority Leader Casey Snider said.
In an interview with the Deseret News editorial board, Snider, and House Speaker Mike Schultz, fretted the new legal precedent puts Utah on the path to permanent rule by special interests.
By converting ballot initiatives into quasi-constitutional “super laws,” they argue it sets the stage for outside groups to transform Utah on issues from liquor, to gambling, to recreational drugs.
Supreme Court backstory
The Supreme Court ruling in question came as a result of lawmakers amending the ballot initiative law known as Proposition 4, which created strict redistricting guidelines for lawmakers after narrowly passing in 2018.
Utah nonprofits sued the Legislature in 2022 after lawmakers bypassed the recommendations of the newly created redistricting commission and approved a congressional map that split Democratic strongholds.
When the case was appealed, Supreme Court justices unanimously ruled the Legislature cannot change initiatives that reform government unless it satisfies a compelling state interest in the least restrictive way possible.
One of the plaintiffs in the case, the League of Women Voters of Utah, told the Deseret News the Legislature can still amend initiatives as long as they do not dismiss the intentions of the people who supported the law.
“By voting for Proposition 4, the people made clear they wanted fair redistricting,” the League’s president, Katharine Biele, said. “The Legislature cannot just ignore this because they want to gerrymander.”
Republican lawmakers dispute this characterization, framing the congressional district map they approved in 2021 as their attempt, after considering constituent input, to balance rural and urban representation.
Some, like Schultz, Senate President Stuart Adams, and Gov. Spencer Cox, have accused 3rd District Court Judge Dianna Gibson of gerrymandering after she used the Supreme Court’s decision to install a much less competitive U.S. House map.
Under the new map, the state would have one district, in northern Salt Lake County, that would advantage Democrats by a 20-percentage-point margin, leaving three remaining seats that favor Republicans by 35-45 points.
These would become some of the most partisan districts in the country, lending themselves to candidates like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, Schultz said.
“Holy cow, we’re going to have an AOC and three Marjorie Taylor Greens down the road sitting in Congress representing Utah,” Schultz, R-Hooper said. “It is terrible for Utah.”
Long-term impacts on the state
But Schultz said GOP lawmakers’ fear surrounding the Supreme Court’s 2024 ruling has nothing to do with the 2026 midterm elections.
The true problem is a new status quo that tips the scale of checks-and-balances toward greater judicial interference in the legislative process that can be gamed by ballot initiative operations.
Lawmakers insist ballot initiatives are a clumsy way of legislating, arguing signature gatherers misrepresent issues to get them on the ballot, and voters hardly have the bandwidth to craft state code at the polls.
It could also lead to rural areas being left out entirely from policy discussions, according to Snider, R-Paradise, because ballot initiatives could rely mostly on a few highly populated, or liberal-leaning, locations.
A similar process has led to policies becoming law in California and Oregon — crippling public safety and legalizing hard drugs — that voters later chose to repeal because of their catastrophic effects.
But the predicament in Utah is “10 times worse,” according to Schultz, because in Utah, the Legislature has no ability to improve new laws if it can be argued that they are intended to reform government.
In the coming legislative session, lawmakers will vote to place a constitutional amendment on the ballot that clarifies their ability to amend or repeal ballot initiatives, including those that alter the structure of government.
The ultimate goal, Schultz said, is not to sidestep a redistricting ruling, it is to reestablish the rules that let lawmakers create the kind of policy that has made Utah one of the best states in the nation.
“It’s unfortunate the Supreme Court put the situation where it is,” Schultz said. “And again, I think that balance has served Utah well for 100-plus years. We want that balance to continue forward.”