Gov. Spencer Cox vetoed a bill Tuesday that would have given him the power to appoint the chief justice of the Utah Supreme Court.
“I admit it is very tempting to sign this bill and assure that the Chief Justice would need to stay in my good graces to retain his or her position,” Cox wrote in a four-page letter explaining his veto.
“Knowing the head magistrate of our state’s highest court would have to think twice before ruling against me or checking my power is difficult to reject,”
“But just because I can, doesn’t mean I should. And while I appreciate your faith and trust in extending me this new authority, I must respectfully decline,” he wrote.
The bill, SB296, was one of several clamping down on the courts after a string of rulings blocking several laws passed by the Legislature, including bills that outlawed almost all abortions, banned transgender girls from playing high school sports, limited the Legislature’s power to undo ballot initiatives and voided a constitutional amendment to undo the initiative ruling.
Sen. Chris Wilson, R-Logan, who sponsored the bill, said his aim was to mimic the process in place for the U.S. Supreme Court in which the president appoints the chief justice, who is then confirmed by the Senate.
“If that were all the bill did, it is something I could support,” Cox wrote. But the bill also required the chief justice to be reappointed and reconfirmed by the Senate every four years, as opposed to the U.S. Supreme Court, where the chief justice is a lifetime appointment.
On the last night of the session, Cox suggested that he was not a supporter of the bill.
“I have no interest in appointing the chief justice,” he said in an interview. “I didn’t ask for it. It was not something I wanted.”
He also said he would have vetoed two other bills targeting the judiciary — one that would have created a legislative panel that could recommend that judges be voted out of office and the other that would have required judges to get two-thirds support in retention elections every six years in order to keep their positions on the bench.
In a meeting of the Judicial Council — which sets policy for the courts — during the session, Chief Justice Matthew Durrant took the unusual step of publicly criticizing the bills targeting the judiciary, saying that the appointment bill likely would not directly impact him, but taken as a whole the legislation was a “broad attack” on the independence of the courts.
The veto means that there were no major structural changes to the judiciary this session, despite the courts being in the Legislature’s crosshairs. A bill did pass that will impact when associations can bring lawsuits on behalf of the group’s members.
“I am deeply disappointed in some recent decisions that I believe are wrong,” Cox wrote in his letter. “But just because I disagree with the court, does not mean that the system is broken or corrupted. Reasonable and intelligent legal minds can and do disagree on these decisions. It is possible to vehemently oppose a ruling and still support the institution.”
In addition to the veto, according to a news release, Cox signed 200 more bills, including:
• H.B. 65 Firefighter Cancer Amendments, which creates a cancer screening program for firefighters;
• H.B. 69 Government Records and Information Amendments, which makes it almost impossible for citizens to recoup legal fees if they win a lawsuit over access to public records;
• H.B. 100 Food Security Amendments, which provides free school lunch to children in low-income families. “No child should have to learn on an empty stomach, and this bill brings us closer to that goal,” Cox said.
• H.B. 322 Child Actor Regulations, which seeks to protect money made by child influencers;
• S.B. 178 Devices in Public Schools, banning cell phones from schools during class time, which Cox said, “resets the default to encourage healthier, more connected learning environments.”
Thursday is the last day for the governor to sign or veto bills passed by the Legislature.
