Friday, June 08, 2007

Clarity (From Me) On Vouchers

Let me make my feelings clear on the courts voucher ruling.

  1. The Utah Supreme Court was right to rule in the way that they did, although I favor vouchers.
  2. The Supreme Court ought to be originalist in their reading of the law, not activist.
  3. The Governor showed no spine in pushing the decision on the wrong branch of government. (The right branch would be the Legislature)
  4. Blame for the voucher law confusion falls upon the heads of the legislature, not those that produced the referendum. Initiative, or referendum, do not a clear, or murky, law make.
  5. As many as can vote should vote in November.

5 comments:

Unknown said...

Tyler,

You are exactly right on this. I found the court ruling appropriate even though I support vouchers. It's too bad that the legislature did such a poor job of making a clear law, or of building a clear consensus on the issue.

It's also too bad that we expect the courts to clear up every mess that the rest of government makes. That attitude in our culture encourages judges to become activist in their rulings.

Rob said...

Waffle Waffle!

Good post Tyler.

Tyler Farrer said...

Rob,

Explain. I like waffles, but I don't--

--Waffle.

Jeremy said...

Tyler,

Why did you wait till after the court's decision was announced to come out against the position of the pro-voucher appellants in this case? Just curious.

It just seems a little silly to have argued earlier on your blog that Shurtleff was correct in stating vouchers were the law because of HB174 and now to agree with the court that it is obvious the exact opposite is clearly the case.

Tyler Farrer said...

Jeremy,

My position is that I am not a lawyer. The A.G. is, and the Justices are.

What I should have said is that I'll stand by the Courts reading of the law.

It should have never made it to the courts in the first place. The legislature should have cleared things up as soon as the law became a point of confusion. This is a bane to the Governor.

I find nothing distasteful about the courts ruling, although I support vouchers.

My point is that even though I lose something in the process, I want the rules followed.

And, I wait until after the courts ruling to say this because I had no idea whether the courts would be activist or not.