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SALT LAKE CITY — The Utah Supreme Court will hear oral arguments later this month in the case of Utah's proposed Amendment D, after attorneys for the Legislature appealed a lower court decision nullifying the proposal.
The court on Saturday informed lawyers for both sides that it would hear arguments on Sept. 25 at 9:30 a.m. Third District Judge Dianna M. Gibson last week allowed ballots to be printed with Amendment D on it but said the question would be void and votes would not be counted.
With that decision in hand, the Legislature appealed on Friday, meaning the question could be brought to life by the state's top court.
The question on Amendment D has quickly become one of the hot topics leading up to the Nov. 5 election. The proposal from the Legislature came in the wake of a July ruling from the high court, which found lawmakers overstepped their authority when they changed a 2018 ballot initiative to create an independent redistricting commission.
That decision scrambled lawmakers, who quickly approved the proposed constitutional amendment in an attempt to sidestep the court's ruling by allowing the Republican-controlled Legislature to overrule voter-led initiatives.
Critics of the proposal accused legislative leaders of writing a ballot question that was "misleading" and sued over the language, which they said was counter to the actual proposed amendment. Gibson agreed, writing that the ballot question omitted critical information, including that it "entirely eliminates the voter's fundamental constitutional right."
She also said lawmakers failed to publish the text of the amendment in newspapers across the state at least two months before the election, which is required under the state constitution.
Attorneys for the state asked the Supreme Court to overturn that decision quickly, saying its outcome will impact the upcoming election.
"Time is of the essence," attorney Tyler Green wrote in his filing. "The district court's order has cast a shadow over the election — in particular whether Utahns should be learning about, campaigning for and voting on Amendment D."
