Founding Father and Supreme Court Justice James Wilson is widely credited with popularizing the foundational American principle that, in our country, the people alone are truly sovereign.
During Pennsylvania’s convention to ratify the United States Constitution, Wilson explained that the Constitution rejects the notion that “the supreme power resides in the States, as governments.” Instead, Wilson clarified, sovereignty “resides in the people, as the fountain of government.”
When early Americans ratified the Constitution, they renounced the European status quo of monarchical or parliamentary sovereignty. By ratifying the Constitution, Americans instead proclaimed that — here in the United States — the people alone have supreme power, and our government’s legitimacy flows directly from the consent of the people themselves.
In the decades after the Constitution was ratified, countless Americans pledged themselves to this uniquely American idea of popular sovereignty. Many of us learned about at least one example in elementary school when we memorized the Gettysburg Address, in which President Abraham Lincoln unequivocally declared that our government is “of the people, by the people, [and] for the people.”
Utah has historically abided by the American principle of popular sovereignty, too. Our state constitution declares — in the very first article — that “[a]ll political power is inherent in the people … and they have the right to alter or reform their government.” Utah’s founders protected Utahns’ right to retain power over their state government, prohibiting Utah’s government from imposing its will on the people of Utah without their support.
For much of Utah’s history since we ratified our state constitution in 1895, the Utah state government has respected the people’s sovereignty. Forty years ago, the Utah Supreme Court reminded us that popular sovereignty is a “foundation principle of our state constitutional law.” And just a few weeks ago, the Utah Supreme Court unanimously reaffirmed popular sovereignty, generally prohibiting the state government from undermining or rejecting the outcomes of statewide ballot initiatives — that is, decisions made by the people of Utah — unless it satisfies strict requirements.
But this past week, the Utah Legislature has proposed to amend our state Constitution, striving to drive a stake into the heart of the people’s sovereignty. If the Utah Legislature gets its way, Utah’s state government will have the power to override the will of the people. No longer will the people be sovereign; the state government will rule supreme.
The context in which the Utah Legislature’s plan arises makes clear that Utahns’ loss of sovereignty is a matter of serious consequence, not merely of abstract political thought. In 2018, the people of Utah voted via ballot initiative to change how we elect the Utah Legislature and our federal representatives. Fearing it would lose power, the Utah Legislature rewrote the law and effectively nullified our votes, impairing Utahns’ power to restructure our government.
Now, if the Utah Legislature’s proposed constitutional amendment is ratified, then state legislators — who violated the will of a majority of Utahns by drawing their own gerrymandered electoral districts, undemocratically stacking the deck in favor of their own reelection — will gain the constitutional authority to overturn the will of the people of Utah whenever we pass ballot initiatives that they don’t support.
In the election this November, I encourage my fellow Utahns to vote against the Utah Legislature’s proposed constitutional amendment. We cannot allow them to succeed in their brazen attempt to usurp the power of the people of Utah.
(Connor Morgan) Connor Morgan was born and raised in Salt Lake City, and he graduated from the University of Utah in 2019. He is currently a third-year student at Harvard Law School.
Connor Morgan was born and raised in Salt Lake City, and he graduated from the University of Utah in 2019. He is currently a third-year student at Harvard Law School.
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