After all, if the ACLU likes it, it must be bad for Utah, right?

In a letter from House Speaker Marty Stephens and Senate President Al Mansell, lawmakers were told that the Subcommittee on Oversight, made up of legislative leaders, voted to change the rule requiring every bill to have a constitutional review note from legislative lawyers.

From now on, a constitutional review note will accompany the bill "only if, in the opinion of the drafting attorney, the bill would have a high probability of being found unconstitutional." All other bills will include the preordained statement: "Based on a limited legal review, this legislation has not been determined to have a high probability of being held unconstitutional."

The letter noted that the legislature's chief counsel, Gaye Taylor, was once told by an "organization that makes it its business to legally challenge legislation" - the ACLU - "that it uses these legislative review notes as a starting point to determine which bills to legally challenge."

Utah has been the only state that puts constitutional review notes on every bill.

Let them eat cake: Last week, the KSL News Web page listed, in order, under "Utah News" these headlines:

l One out of Five Utah Children Live in Poverty

l Three-Day Gala Set for Huntsman Inauguration (The projected cost of the 3-day festivities: $100,000!)

Speaking of injustices: Would-be prophet and 2004 U.S. Senate write-in candidate Cody Judy believes that if pencils had been provided at the voting booths Nov. 2, he could have gotten enough votes to overturn his 626,640-to-16-vote defeat at the hands of Republican incumbent Bob Bennett.

Judy, who spent eight years in prison after trying to force then-LDS General Authority Howard W. Hunter to declare Judy the true prophet of God by threatening Hunter with a purported makeshift bomb during a fireside at Brigham Young University in 1993, has filed a federal lawsuit against state election officials, demanding a new election and reimbursement of the $100,000 he spent on his campaign.

That claim, of course, means Judy joins Merrill Cook and Kem Gardner as Utah's leaders in campaign spending per vote. Judy's cost: $6,250 per vote.

Judy's suit claims his rights were violated because voters didn't have pencils to write in his name, and because lists of certified write-in candidates were not displayed at the polls.

Taxing problem: For the past year, the Adult Probation and Parole Office in Fillmore has received hundreds of calls at its number, 435-743-5830, from people wanting to talk to a representative of the Utah state Tax Commission.

The callers have all reported they were provided AP&P's number through the Qwest Dex registry.

Probation office manager Connie Christensen, who has been barraged with the calls, refers callers to the real number of the Tax Commission, which is toll-free, 1-800-662-4335.

Ron Wilson, AP&P's supervisor, has made repeated calls to Dex to correct the problem. To date, nothing has happened and the tax season is looming.

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Paul Rolly and JoAnn Jacobsen-Wells welcome e-mail at rolly_wells@sltrib.com.