Utah Supreme Court weighs challenge to Amendment D ballot language and publication

Salt Lake City — The Utah Supreme Court on Wednesday heard arguments in a dispute over Constitutional Amendment D, focusing on whether the ballot summary is misleading and whether the Legislature complied with the state Constitution’s publication requirement.

Mark Gaver, counsel for the plaintiffs-appellees, told the justices that Amendment D would allow the Legislature to repeal voter initiatives — a power he said the ballot summary omits and that a reasonable voter would not expect. “No one looking at this ballot language would understand that to be the operative effect of the amendment,” Gaver said, arguing the omission is both misleading and counterfactual.

Gaver also argued the Legislature failed to meet Article 23, Section 1’s publication mandate. He said the Legislature changed how voter materials are distributed, moving much material online, and that the full text of the proposed amendment was not continuously published in newspapers for the two‑month period the Constitution…