Utahns for Ethical Gov’t v. Bell

by
Utahns for Ethical Government (UEG), a Utah political action committee, advanced a petition for an initiative to be included in the 2010 statewide general election. Ultimately, UEG's efforts to qualify for the 2010 ballot were unsuccessful. Yet UEG continued collecting additional signatures thereafter, using the same petition targeting 2010. The lieutenant governor subsequently determined that UEG's initiative did not qualify for the 2012 ballot, reasoning that the initiative petition it advanced applied only to the 2010 ballot. UEG then filed suit, seeking a court order compelling placement of its proposed initiative on the 2012 ballot. After UEG's efforts at the district court proved unsuccessful, UEG appealed and petitioned the Supreme Court for extraordinary relief. The Supreme Court denied UEG the relief it sought, holding that UEG was not entitled to have its initiative included on the 2012 ballot because it did not meet its burden of demonstrating that its initiative qualified for the 2012 ballot. View "Utahns for Ethical Gov't v. Bell" on Justia Law