On the homepage of its website, Alliance for a Better Utah lays out a one-sentence description of its purpose: “a nonprofit that holds politicians accountable and advocates for progressive policies.”
But after a GOP state lawmaker saw his name in the organization’s fundraising messages earlier this week, he sent a cease-and-desist letter Tuesday demanding Better Utah remove his “name, photograph, and likeness” from its content and issue a public retraction.
Sen. John Johnson, R-North Ogden, wrote, “This is not protected political speech — it is a commercial appeal using my likeness to raise money, which violates my common law right of publicity and constitutes misappropriation of likeness.”
The organization did not issue a retraction. Instead, Better Utah responded by sending the entirety of Johnson’s email to supporters, again asking for money toward its cause. “If you think elected officials like John Johnson should be transparent, beyond reproach, and act as champions of free speech instead of trying to squash it, can you chip in today?” the message read.
Johnson has continued to escalate his attacks on Better Utah for its criticism of him, urging Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson’s office to investigate the organization’s actions, as well as consider referring a case against the group to the Utah Division of Consumer Protection and the Utah attorney general’s office.
The senator did not respond to questions from The Salt Lake Tribune about the allegations he made, or whether he had retained legal counsel. A spokesperson for the lieutenant governor’s office said it is reviewing Johnson’s complaint.
(Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) David Reymann speaks during a news conference at the Utah Capitol on Thursday, July 11, 2024. He represents Alliance for a Better Utah.
“His claims ... are nothing but an attempt to intimidate an organization that is trying to hold him accountable, that could chill them from engaging in protected political speech,” said David Reymann, an attorney who specializes in First Amendment law and is representing Better Utah.
“Sen. Johnson is a public official,” Reymann continued, “and it is the job of citizens to hold him accountable for doing the public’s business. And if he is offended by citizens doing that, then he needs to get a thicker skin if he’s going to be in public office.”
‘Will you chip in?’
An image of Johnson surrounded by the phrases “Utah Legislature,” “Donald Trump,” “Utah State University,” “Eliminate DEI” and “Higher Ed Budget Cuts,” with lines tying the topics together, accompanied a Monday fundraising text message from Alliance for a Better Utah, according to Executive Director Taylor Knuth.
“Will you chip in $50 so Better Utah can keep shining a spotlight on John Johnson’s conflicts of interest and stopping his anti-education nonsense before it spreads?” the message read in part, according to a screenshot Johnson sent to Henderson’s office.
Better Utah’s messaging, Johnson told the lieutenant governor’s office, is “falsely accusing me of ‘abusing power for personal gain’ and of working at Utah State University without disclosing a conflict. These statements are factually false. I retired from USU over two years ago, hold only the honorary title of Emeritus Professor, receive no salary or contract, and have consistently disclosed this publicly.”
(Chris Samuels | The Salt Lake Tribune) Sen. John Johnson, R-Ogden, before the beginning of the legislative session at the Capitol in Salt Lake City, Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2025.
Johnson identified himself as a USU management information systems professor in his conflict of interest disclosures when he filed to run for a seat in the Utah Senate in 2020.
In his letter to Better Utah, Johnson said he retired early “in part because of harassment directed at my department and colleagues stemming from attacks on my efforts to restore viewpoint diversity and challenge politicized DEI programming. I stepped away from my academic post specifically to prevent groups like yours from targeting my colleagues through false insinuations.”
The North Ogden senator also, according to his financial disclosures, holds a volunteer board position overseeing USU’s Center for the School of the Future.
Earlier this year, Johnson successfully introduced a law that creates a new center at USU to craft curriculum that shifts the focus of public higher education institutions in the state to texts “predominantly from Western civilization” and about “the rise of Christianity.”
The Legislature is giving the school just over half a million dollars each year toward the effort.
Is this a free speech shakedown?
Ed Carter, a media law professor at Brigham Young University, said from his perspective, if Johnson were to file a lawsuit the likelihood of him succeeding is low.
His chances are affected, in part, Carter said, by a law Johnson voted for in 2023 — the Uniform Public Expression Protection Act. Reymann used that law to get a lawsuit against a Utah LGBTQ+ advocacy group thrown out earlier this year.
The law is considered an anti-SLAPP — or strategic lawsuit against public participation — measure, and is meant to stop cases that target constitutionally protected speech, often used to drain the defendant’s financial resources or intimidate them into silence.
“If we had this rule that every time a public official is upset that opponents are using his name, image, likeness, to raise money, and is able to stop them from doing that, then I think that would curtail our public discussion quite a bit and would harm democracy,” Carter said.
Johnson’s threats coincide with efforts by the head of his party, President Donald Trump, to take aim at speech that he sees as harmful to his reputation, and, in some cases, that runs counter to his policies.
Since taking office, Trump has sued several news outlets over their coverage of him. Most recently, he filed a defamation lawsuit against the Wall Street Journal for its reporting on a birthday note he allegedly wrote to the late financier Jeffrey Epstein, who was convicted of sex offenses and accused of trafficking children. And his administration has led a crackdown on political expression at universities.
If Johnson’s cease-and-desist letter and call for investigation is a sign that such strategies are further seeping into Utah, Carter worries about the effect that might have on the state overall.
“The future of our communities depends on a certain amount of respectful debate, but also not using laws and intimidation methods. Unfortunately, we see that on the national level, and it’s not something that I would want to see happen locally — a shakedown type of a thing through law, where we just get people to go along with a powerful person’s view of how things should be," Carter said.