Acts of political courage are so rare these days that it is worthy of note when one comes along.
Utah Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson has been marking a string of such acts. The most recent is her resistance to the Trump administration’s attempt to get her to provide the state’s voter rolls and compare it to a federal list of citizens, even though that would violate state privacy laws.
The order, Henderson wrote, reminded her of an absurdist Eugene Ionesco play, which she acted in high school, which was “super weird and the script was full of nonsensical dialogue.”
Score one for an arts education.
The lieutenant governor has also courageously opposed the federal SAVE America Act, which most of her fellow Republicans support. That bill is designed to make it much more difficult for many Americans, especially women whose married name does not match the name on their birth certificates, to vote.
Henderson particularly objects to the provisions in the bill that would destroy Utah’s effective and popular vote-by-mail system and threaten Utahns’ right to a secret ballot.
Another brave statement came recently from Utah’s U.S. Sen. John Curtis. In the face of Donald Trump’s war on Iran, Curtis has managed to be among the few Republicans who remember the constitutional requirement that war be declared by Congress, not the president.
Curtis wrote in a commentary in the Deseret News that he recognizes the threat Iran poses and sees the need for military action. But he notes that the War Powers Act of 1973 limits such actions ordered by the president to no more than 60 days without congressional authorization. And Curtis expects Trump to abide by that law.
“The Constitution assigns the legislative branch the clear and explicit right to declare war,” Curtis wrote. “To accord a president the power to wage an ongoing war without a congressional declaration of war is to render that congressional authority void.”
Expressing that sentiment in normal times would be stating the obvious. In today’s political climate, it is an act of political courage we need to see more of, from Curtis, and from the rest of Utah’s congressional delegation.
Editorials represent the opinions of The Salt Lake Tribune editorial board, which operates independently from the newsroom.