Libertas Legislator Profiles

Libertas Legislator Index Rankings

The following rating measures how consistently this legislator votes in support of individual liberty, private property, and free enterprise. To learn more, see the main index page.

2015	2016	Overall Rating
93%	96%	95%

To see the specific votes used to rank this legislator, click the link in the table above for any of the yearly percentages listed.

Sponsored Ranked Bills

This legislator was the sponsor of the following bills, which were ranked by Libertas Institute in their respective year's Legislator Index.

• SJR2: Resolution asking Congress to repeal the 17th Amendment (2016)
  This resolution calls calls on Congress to propose a constitutional amendment to repeal the 17th Amendment.
  
  This bill passed the Senate 20-6 and passed the House 39-34. Libertas Institute supports a "yea" vote, because America's bicameral legislature was designed by its creators to be divided and different—the House would represent the people, based on population, and the Senate would represent the states with legislatures deciding who should fill the position. Congress would benefit from restoring this additional check and balance, and this unique aspect would help minimize Congress' longstanding usurpation of power not delegated by states to the federal government under the Constitution.
• SB45: Decriminalizing truancy for public school parents (2016)
  Previous to this bill, Utah law criminalized the parents of students who were absent from public school more than five unexcused times per school year. In the decade prior, 20 parents had been incarcerated under this law, and 171 fined. This bill lowered the penalty to an infraction for the first case of habitual truancy, and a class C misdemeanor for the second time in the same year.
  
  This bill passed the Senate 22-5 and passed the House 39-35. Libertas Institute supports a "yea" vote, since parents are the primary stewards of their children, and the government (and public schools) should be secondary and supportive—and not punitive, should one's child not attend school as demanded of them.
• SB79: Allowing adults to leave juvenile custody (2016)
  Prior to this bill, Utah law allowed a court to maintain juvenile custody of an adult between 18 and 21 years old. This bill established a process whereby a legal adult still in custody of the state can petition to be removed from state custody.
  
  This bill passed in the Senate 27-0 and passed in the House 54-18. Libertas Institute supports an "aye" vote, as legal adults should be free leave custody of the state once they are no longer a minor.
• SB104: Education Elections and Reporting Amendments (2015)
  This bill would have modified the State Board of Education election process by making members of this state school board partisan, putting them through the same caucus process as other elected officials.
  
  This bill passed the Senate 19-8 and died in the House 31-43. Libertas supports a "yea" vote.

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