Liberal Utah Judges

Once again liberal Utah judges are legislating from the bench. Recently the Utah Supreme Court ruled that the 120,000 Utahns who signed the petition for a referendum regarding Utah’s school voucher law would get their day in court. Not only would they get their day in court but they would also be allowed to have the second, yet totally separate voucher bill, be included in the referendum decision. How dare this minuscule group of experienced legal minds have an opinion, which calls into question the wisdom and integrity of the Utah Legislature? Where does this tiny group get their audacity? How dare they question the Legislature’s intention of funding private and secular schools with public tax paid funds?

I could go on but by now I hope you’ve realized I’m being facetious. I have intentionally avoided being facetious in this blog before now. I wanted you, the readers, to know where I was coming from and what my opinions about things were. Today however, I thought I might catch some members of the other side unaware and get them to start reading. Maybe I could entice a few of them into reading further on.

What the Utah Supreme Court did was an excellent example of the constitution’s intentional separation of powers within the three branches of our government. This brilliantly conceived structure of three separate branches of government and the specific checks and balances it creates is one of the most significant features of our form of government. It provides for the rule of law interpreted by non-partisan evaluators, judges and the system used by those judges, the courts. Our adversarial court system is presided over by these judges.

The two sides, the adversaries, the pro-voucher proponents and the anti-voucher opponents brought their different opinions regarding the issue of a one vote referendum on both bills passed by the Legislature to the court. The court heard legal arguments about the law from each side’s interpretation and then decided one argument had greater standing under the law. Their decision was for one vote for either up or down, tying both of the Legislature’s two laws together in the referendum vote. I totally agree with the court’s decision. I believe the referendum vote outcome will show a significantly larger number of Utahns are against school vouchers paid for with tax dollars.

Some members of our Legislature have suggested the Court overstepped its authority with its decision. Some suggested additional legislation, which would circumvent the court’s decision. How dare those non-elected judges think their opinion took precedence over the opinion of elected officials? What do you call a group of little boys who take their ball home when the umpire rules against their desires? Spoiled comes to mind.