A group of Utahns who failed to meet the requirements for launching a referendum to reject recent changes to the state’s tax laws have sued Utah’s lieutenant governor, seeking to have those requirements and their rejection overturned by the courts.
In a lawsuit filed Monday in U.S. District Court, Steven Maxfield — chairman of the group The People’s Right — Daniel Newby and Maxfield’s 18-year-old son Morris Maxfield argue that a state law requiring the organizers of a referendum to have voted in the past three years unconstitutionally discriminates against adults like Newby and Morris Maxfield who either did not vote, or were not yet old enough to vote, in previous elections.