Thank you Salt Lake Tribune for publishing the legal brief “secretly” sent to the Utah Supreme Court by Utah’s Republican legislators: Chris Stewart, Burgess Owens, John Curtis and Blake Moore.
Essentially, the brief says that there is no constitutional right to be free from gerrymandering anywhere in the U.S., including here in Utah. Yes, this error possibly exists by written omission in national and state constitutions; however, most Americans, including those who wrote our Constitution, and most Utahns, believe that our Constitution is there to protect a democratic form of government that frowns upon tyranny by the majority.
It is interesting to note that all four legislators agree that voting districts in Utah were gerrymandered! This they admit! What they are asserting in this brief is: “The joke’s on you folks (Utahns) the courts can do nothing about gerrymandering since it is strictly a legislative right … that Utah has been screwed and Utahns can do nothing about it because the only body that can fix gerrymandering in Utah is our Utah Legislature — the ones who did the gerrymandering in the first place! Their summary: Sticks and stones may break “your” bones (non-Republican voters), but your voting will never hurt us (Republican voters).
Beverly Terry, Salt Lake City