Utah lawmakers now won’t pursue constitutional amendment to change ballot initiative power

Though previously Utah’s Republican state leaders said they were likely to pursue another attempt to change the Utah Constitution to ensure Utah voters’ ballot initiative power was “co-equal” with the Legislature’s power, they’ve changed course.

That is, at least for this year. 

Now, instead of planning to put a proposed constitutional amendment on the upcoming November ballot, Utah House Speaker Mike Schultz, R-Hooper, said lawmakers will wait for the courts to settle ongoing litigation that pushed the issue to the forefront in the first place: a yearslong lawsuit over gerrymandering and whether Utahns had the power to create an independent redistricting process and ban partisan gerrymandering when voters passed Proposition 4 in 2018. 

“We believe it’s appropriate to allow the litigation to continue through the courts before considering whether any further action is necessary,” Schultz said in a prepared statement issued Wednesday. “Our focus remains on defending the Legislature’s constitutional authority through the judicial process.” 

Special session for Amendment D 2.0? Lawmakers still eyeing their power over ballot initiatives

So far, the courts have rejected the Legislature’s attempts to undo previous court decisions that have since reinstated Proposition 4 as law and set court-ordered congressional boundaries for the 2026 elections. But an appeal on the larger redistricting case is waiting to be heard in front of the Utah Supreme Court, which the Legislature earlier this year expanded from five justices to seven. 

Additionally, the Legislature earlier this year created a new three-judge “constitutional court”  specifically to hear lawsuits that challenge state laws as unconstitutional. That new law has also drawn its own legal challenges alleging it is unconstitutional, including from the lead plaintiffs in the redistricting lawsuit, The League of Women Voters of Utah and Mormon Women for Ethical Government. 

“The voters of Utah have always honored the legislature’s role in redistricting,” Katharine Biele, president of the League of Women Voters of Utah, said in a prepared statement issued Wednesday. “We are confident that our case is solid and look forward to representing the voters in court.” 

Though Utah’s Republican legislative leaders have long believed the Legislature has the ultimate authority to change or repeal laws enacted by voters through ballot initiatives, rulings issued in recent years by the Utah Supreme Court and 3rd District Judge Dianna Gibson have determined lawmakers’ power to change “government reform” ballot initiatives has limits. 

In a ruling that voided the state’s 2021 congressional map, Gibson determined the Utah Legislature violated the state’s constitution when it repealed and replaced Proposition 4 with a law that allowed lawmakers to ignore the independent redistricting commission’s recommendations and draw their own political boundaries — which is what they did during the state’s last redistricting cycle in 2021. 

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After also determining that the Utah Legislature failed to draw a lawful map to replace the 2021 congressional boundaries for the 2026 elections, Gibson instead chose a map drawn by plaintiffs in the case — which turned one of Utah’s previously red congressional districts blue. 

That ruling angered and dismayed Utah Republican leaders, who continue to argue, despite the Utah Supreme Court’s 2024 opinion, that the Legislature has always had the ability to change laws enacted by ballot initiatives, including Proposition 4. 

In 2024, Utah lawmakers tried to sidestep that Utah Supreme Court ruling by proposing a change to the Utah Constitution known as Amendment D. But that attempt never materialized after the courts ruled the Legislature failed to meet constitutional publication requirements and because its language (written by Utah’s top legislative leaders) was misleading to voters. 

Throughout the 2026 Utah Legislature’s general session earlier this year, Utah Senate President Stuart Adams, R-Layton, and Schultz had said there would likely be a new constitutional amendment on the 2026 ballot. But they said they were still working on the language of the proposed amendment even as the session ended in March, meaning that if they were to follow through, they would need to convene a special session to put the question on the ballot. 

It wasn’t until Wednesday that Schultz confirmed lawmakers now no longer plan to put that question on the 2026 ballot. Their next opportunity to do so will be in 2028. 

Amendment D ballot language was misleading to voters, Utah Supreme Court affirms

Adams — who lost his re-election bid in the Republican primary last month — also issued a statement saying Senate Republicans also plan to let the litigation play out first.

“As we continue to defend the constitutional authority of lawmakers and the voice of the people, we believe this litigation should proceed through the judicial process,” Adams said. “We remain steadfast in our responsibility to uphold the Constitution and protect the principles that preserve our Republic.”

Throughout the 2026 session, Adams said it was a priority of his to ensure laws passed by the Legislature and those enacted by ballot initiative were on a “level playing field” or co-equal. 

“Whether we do it now or post session, if I have anything to do with it, we will have … a constitutional amendment on the ballot,” Adams told reporters on the final night of the legislative session. 

Though Adams’ primary loss has shaken up the Legislature, Senate Majority Leader Kirk Cullimore told The Salt Lake Tribune that the decision to push pause on a proposed constitutional amendment dealing with ballot initiative power was not influenced by Adams’ loss. 

“President Adams has obviously been a staunch supporter of some sort of a constitutional amendment to try to bring propositions back to how they were understood prior to the Supreme Court decision,” Cullimore told the outlet. “But even prior to President Adams’ [loss], there have been some discussions about maybe this year is not the right year to consider that.”

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Elizabeth Rasmussen, executive director of Better Boundaries — the anti-gerrymandering group that successfully pursued Proposition 4 in 2018 — said that while she was “encouraged” lawmakers won’t be pursuing another constitutional amendment this year, “the broader effort to limit Utahns’ ability to use the ballot initiative process hasn’t gone away.” 

“Legislative leaders have said they’ll continue to pursue this issue through the courts, and Utahns will still vote this November on a proposed constitutional amendment that would make it harder for certain citizen initiatives to pass,” Rasmussen said. “We’ll continue to fight any attempt by politicians to rewrite the Utah Constitution to take that check away.“

Utah voters this November will weigh in on a proposed constitutional amendment to require any future ballot initiatives that would impose a new tax to get at least 60% of the vote in order to become law, rather than the current requirement of a simple majority. 

Voters this year will also weigh in on a second constitutional amendment, which strikes from the Utah Constitution the requirement that proposed constitutional amendments must be published in newspapers. Lawmakers proposed that change after the courts voided Amendment D, in part because state leaders failed to properly notice the proposed amendment in newspapers across the state.

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