This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2013, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Do we really have to put up with people in the Utah Legislature who waste taxpayer time on unconstitutional nonsense? ("Bill advances giving Utah upper hand in gun showdown with feds," Tribune, March 5).
Maybe we could withhold their pay on every day that they propose that state law is supreme over federal law, or require them to attend a high school civics class. This is not really that funny — more than 600,000 young men lost their lives in a Civil War over this very issue of federal-state supremacy.
The U.S. Constitution is quite specific: Federal law is the "supreme law of the land," and state legislators take an oath "that I will support, obey and defend the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of this State."
Not only do we now send people to Washington who refuse to sit down and do the business of governing, but now we have our own state Legislature engaged in foolishness.
Wayne McCormack E.W. Thode Professor of Law University of Utah
Salt Lake City