Senate Bill 129 (from Sen. Kirk Cullimore) would collapse Utah’s eight judicial districts into just three and would create new judicial nominating commissions that could be fully partisan. Under the proposal, Salt Lake County would become part of a First Judicial District that would stretch north to Box Elder County, south to Millard County, east to Rich County, west to Tooele County and would also include Weber, Davis and Utah Counties. The proposal would eliminate the current bipartisan composition of the nominating commissions and would empower the Governor to appoint all the members of the judicial nominating commissions.
This proposal to redraw the lines of Utah’s judicial districts and to enable the judicial nominating process to become a captured partisan exercise arrives shortly after the Utah Supreme Court received a case challenging the lines drawn by the Legislature for the state’s congressional districts. And it follows closely on the heels of the Legislature working to rewrite longstanding state law — and apply those changes retroactively — to make an end run around the court-ordered injunction on the state’s law banning abortions.
There should be bipartisan support to protect our state judiciary — which is a model across the nation for bipartisanship and independence — from even the appearance of such politicalization, which will damage the institution for years to come, and perhaps permanently.
Logan Vanderbilt, Salt Lake City
from The Salt Lake Tribune https://ift.tt/hGjkEo1
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