SALT LAKE CITY — Fed up with the difficulty of running a citizen ballot initiative, a group of people are asking the Utah Supreme Court to directly intervene.
Calling themselves the "Citizen's Initiative Reform Committee," they intend to file a writ of extraordinary relief on Tuesday with the state's top court asking to reinstate some rejected provisions of their proposed initiative and send a message to Utah's Capitol Hill.
"We’re so fed up with the way we’ve been treated on these issues," said Daniel Newby, one of the sponsors of what has been called the "Initiatives Initiative."
The "Initiatives Initiative" was filed toward the end of the 2025 Utah State Legislature, seeking to rewrite laws governing citizen initiatives, public records, public lands and taxes. But so far the group's initiative hasn't gotten very far. Newby said three of their four initiatives (public records, public lands and taxes) were rejected by the Lt. Governor's Office. The initiative on citizen initiatives, he added, was allowed to go forward.
So the group intends to seek relief from the Utah Supreme Court.
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"Up until now, really initiatives were to put it kindly, illusory and fraudulent and legislators just wiped their posteriors with them," Newby told FOX 13 News on Monday. "What we’ve seen from the Supreme Court is a desire to put a little more teeth into the initiative process. We’re giving them the opportunity to kind of put their money where their mouth is, you know, help us."
In response to legal challenges, the Utah Supreme Court has upheld some citizen initiative rights. Notably, the justices voided Amendment D on the ballot last year (which arose out of a lawsuit the League of Women Voters of Utah and Mormon Women for Ethical Government filed over the legislature overriding a citizen initiative on independent redistricting).
"They need to be reformed to be more 'user friendly' and not have such almost impossibly high bars that it discourages grassroots efforts and incentives big-monied interests that can afford to pay signature gatherers, which is the very opposite of why the legislators in recent past have said they have tightened up on it - to avoid monied interests," said Nancy Lord, another of the sponsors of the Initiatives Initiative. "Their outright duplicity and disrespect for the citizens’ legislative rights under our State Constitution, in response to last July’s State Supreme Court ruling, reveal their disdain for anyone who challenges their legislative authority."
Republican legislative leaders declined to comment Monday on the citizen writ until it had actually been filed and they had reviewed it. But CIRC's complaints aren't exactly new. A report earlier this year by the Utah Foundation, a non-partisan think tank, found that Utahns rank "politicians not listening to them" as a top concern.
"They feel their voices are not heard, particularly when they’re running up against the voices of corporations, running up against the voices of religious organizations, of well connected folks and others, just other special interest groups," said Shawn Teigan, the president of the Utah Foundation.
It's the second time it has appeared in their Utah priorities survey, which has surprised Teigen. It ranks up there with housing affordability as a top concern. But lawmakers have long argued they are elected by the people and therefore are closest to the people.
"You might think, 'Oh, it’s the Democrats that are really mad about this," Teigen said. "Even half of Republicans feel that politicians don’t listen to them. It’s a concern across all demographic groups and ideologies."
