The Utah Supreme Court ruled last week in favor of the 3rd District Court’s decision to void Amendment D and although it will still be on the ballot, votes will not be counted. The legislature passed Amendment D in a Special Session held in August that would have changed the Utah Constitution and given the legislature the ability to repeal or amend citizen initiatives.

After the 3rd District Court’s ruling, the legislature filed an appeal and the Utah Supreme Court heard oral arguments on Sept. 25. That afternoon in a unanimous decision the court ruled in favor of the lower court’s decision.

Senate President J. Stuart Adams and Speaker Mike Shultz released this statement after the ruling: “The Court’s action is unprecedented and troubling. The Legislature offered the Court a way to preserve the voting rights of all Utahns, but instead, the Court took the chance to vote on Amendment D out of the voters’ hands. It’s a sad day for Utah and voters, whether for or against the constitutional amendments.”

“The district court correctly ruled that neither constitutional prerequisite was met with respect to Amendment D,” the Court’s decision read. “The Legislature did not cause the amendment to be published in newspapers throughout the state for two months and the description that will appear on the ballot does not submit the amendment to voters ‘with such clarity as to enable to voters to express their will.’”

“The legislature made a mistake,” said Sen. Todd Weiler, R-Woods Cross. “Several years ago a state law was put into code that any constitutional amendments were required to have 60 days notice in newspapers. In the last four to five years that hasn’t taken place.”

Third District Court Judge Laura Scott voided Amendment D for lack of publishing, he said. “Amendment A (dealing with removing the income tax earmark for education) will likely be voided too based on the same thing.”

Those could come back in 2026, said Weiler. “They’re important issues. It’s unfortunate that it (publishing) was overlooked.”

Amendment B that would increase the annual distributions from the State School Fund for public education from 4% to 5% and Amendment C that a sheriff should be elected by voters are not expected to fail, he said. “If nobody files suit on those they may go into effect. I’m not aware of anyone suing over those. Amendment B would help education.”

“I’m a champion of this (Amendment B),” said Davis District Board of Education President Liz Mumford. “The money comes from trust lands that are integral to making sure students in the future are not getting more benefit than the current students.”

The funds are so well managed that there is more than a $3.3 billion balance if they stay at 4%, she said. “In the future students would have higher benefits. This gives intergenerational equity and raising the cap will have no impact on the taxpayer.”

It gives local control so that the money goes straight to community councils for them to use as they see fit, said Mumford. “The increase gives us $1.2 million more. By changing the formula it gets more fairly distributed over time.” 

The ballots are printed so Amendments A and D will still be listed, said Weiler. “They’ve already been sent overseas and you can’t send one form for one and not the other. You can vote for them but they won’t be counted.”