SALT LAKE CITY — The Utah Supreme Court has rejected a citizen ballot initiative that sought to impose age limits on candidates running for federal office.
A group of people sued Lt. Governor Deidre Henderson, the state's top elections officer, after her office rejected their petition for an initiative. They declared the proposed initiative, setting an age limit of 81 for federal office candidates, as "patently unconstitutional." A lower-court judge sided with the Lt. Governor and the citizen ballot initiative sponsors appealed to the state's top court.
In a unanimous opinion issued Friday, the Utah Supreme Court sided with the Lt. Governor again citing U.S. case law on the subject.
"On appeal, the Sponsors maintain that Thornton should be overruled because its prohibition on state-created qualifications for federal officeholders violates the Tenth Amendment of the United States Constitution. But because the Sponsors recognize that this court lacks authority to overturn Thornton, they ask us to affirm the district court’s decision, thereby paving the way for them to petition the United States Supreme Court for review," Justice Diana Hagen wrote in the opinion.
Read the full Utah Supreme Court ruling here:
