Gov. Spencer Cox: Utah court's ruling against Amendment D is 'compelling.' 

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• Isaac Hale | Pool Photo
• Utah Gov. Spencer Cox takes questions from reporters during a televised press conference on Thursday, Sept. 19.

UNIVERSITY—Utah Gov. Spencer Cox said Thursday that he's worried about "judicial activism" in the nation's courts, but broadly trusts the state's judiciary and its system for seating jurists on the bench.

"I'm very proud of the judiciary here," Cox said, "even when I disagree with them."

Cox was responding to a question about Amendment D—an attempt by state lawmakers to constitutionally enshrine their superiority over the voting public—which was recently invalidated in part due to deceptive ballot language that misrepresents the amendment to voters.

The Legislature called itself into special session last month to hastily place Amendment D on November's ballot after the state Supreme Court ruled that citizens have a constitutionally-protected right to reform Utah's government through initiatives. Lawmakers criticized the ruling as creating "super laws" and sought to bolster their ultimate authority to repeal initiatives at will. And while the proposed amendment will appear on November's ballot, a judge ruled last week that the amendment is void and will not take legal effect, even if approved by a majority of voters, pending an appeal by the state.

"I read the opinion from the lower court," Cox said. "It's a compelling opinion, I think."

Cox's comments—delivered during his monthly televised press conference at PBS Utah—struck a far different tone than that of legislative leaders who, after the lower court ruling on Amendment D, issued a statement decrying "policymaking action from the bench" and warning of "out-of-state interest groups" with "seemingly unlimited funds" manipulating the state's politics.

"The court’s actions have introduced significant uncertainty into the electoral process, raising concerns about the impartiality and timing of judicial interventions," said House Speaker Mike Schultz, R-Hooper, and Senate President Stuart Adams, R-Layton. "Such interference during an ongoing election undermines public confidence in the integrity of the process. The court is denying the right of the people to vote and should not be exerting undue influence on this election."

The entire saga stems from a public vote in 2018, during which a slim majority—but a majority nonetheless—of Utahns approved a citizen initiative creating an independent redistricting commission. The law created by that initiative's success was subsequently gutted by members of the Legislature, who then opted to reject the commission's nonpartisan voting maps in favor of heavily-gerrymandered districts that overtly diluted the power of Utah's urban—and traditionally more left-leaning—voters.

That led to litigation seeking to restore the requirement for independent maps, which in turn resulted in the Supreme Court's ruling on the constitutional protections for citizen initiatives, triggering the Legislature's special session and, finally, another round of litigation that successfully challenged the process and deceptive ballot language of Amendment D.

“The people are entitled to an accurate summary of any proposed constitutional amendment that impacts their fundamental rights," 3rd District Judge Diana Gibson wrote in her ruling.

Utah uses a system of retention elections for its judicial branch, meaning judges do not run in partisan elections but instead are appointed by the governor and confirmed by the state Senate, with voters able to retain or remove judges from the bench during certain election cycles. Judges are also routinely evaluated by an independent body of legal professionals, which issues recommendations to voters on whether to retain or evict a sitting jurist.

It is expected that the Legislature's upcoming General Session will include debate on various judicial reform proposals, such as direct elections, term limits and other checks on the judiciary's power. But Cox praised the state's selection and retention methods and suggested he'd be reluctant to support major reforms.

"I think the last thing we need are more divisive elections, especially over a branch of government that's supposed to be independent," Cox said.

Cox also declined to say whether the ballot language for Amendment D is deceptive—written by legislative leaders, it presents the amendment as bolstering the initiative process and banning foreign interference—but he has previously acknowledged the arguments of amendment opponents.

"It is important that the language is clear and conveys what the actual changes will do," Cox said Thursday. "I'll let the [state Supreme] Court decide whether that language is misleading."