SALT LAKE CITY — A federal judge has denied an injunction that would have extended the deadline to collect signatures for organizers of an initiative seeking to reverse Utah’s new flag law, adding that the organizers are “unlikely to prevail” in their case.
U.S. District Court Judge Jill Parrish handed down her decision in a 33-page ruling on Monday, siding with the Utah Lieutenant Governor’s Office over Tracie Halvorsen and the group Are You Listening Yet PAC. The two filed the lawsuit last month along with a motion seeking a preliminary injunction to extend the initiative signing deadline from Feb. 15 to July 8.
In it, Parrish wrote that the U.S. District Court only has the jurisdiction to consider seven of the 10 claims in the lawsuit. In addition, she wrote that the plaintiffs — Halvorsen and Are You Listening Yet PAC — “are not likely to succeed on the merits” of those seven claims, resulting in her decision to deny the motion.
“Plaintiffs have failed to demonstrate that they would suffer irreparable harm absent preliminary injunctive relief,” she wrote. “This fact alone is sufficient to compel the court to deny plaintiffs’ motion. But plaintiffs’ motion also suffers from other faults. Plaintiffs lack standing to bring two of their claims, and a third claim alleged in plaintiffs’ complaint is moot.”
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Written by CARTER WILLIAMS, KSL.com.
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