By McKenzie Romero | Editor
Seven months before Gov. Spencer Cox called his name to fill a seat on the Utah Supreme Court, Michael Menssen signed a petition seeking to put a repeal of the voter-driven anti-gerrymandering initiative known as Proposition 4 on the ballot.
That signature gathering effort failed, and Menssen is now among the justices hearing arguments related to the ongoing lawsuit over the law. A progressive advocacy group is calling on him to recuse himself.
In today’s Dispatch we look at the questions surrounding Menssen’s stance on Prop 4, a paid leave deal for the Wasatch County sheriff facing obstruction charges, and lawmakers’ concerns about accountability for tenured professors in the state.
“As a private citizen, Michael Menssen had every right to sign that petition. But he is not a private citizen anymore. … When a judge has personally signed on to one side of a fight, the public has every reason to question his impartiality.” — Katie Matheson, executive director of Alliance for a Better Utah, as the group calls on Menssen to recuse himself from hearing cases related to Proposition 4.
Michael Menssen speaks after being confirmed by the Senate as a Utah Supreme Court Justice at the Capitol in Salt Lake City on Wednesday, Sept. 16, 2026. (Photo by Spenser Heaps for Utah News Dispatch)
By Katie McKellar
Justice Michael Menssen sat on the bench earlier this month when the Utah Supreme Court heard arguments over whether the redistricting case — along with two others — should be transferred away from a district court judge and instead to a three-judge panel the Utah Legislature created earlier this year specifically meant to hear constitutional challenges to state laws.
A court spokesperson told Utah News Dispatch “The normal standards and procedures for recusal decisions have been considered and followed.” Alliance for a Better Utah is asking the court to explain how the recusal decision was evaluated.
A portrait of Wasatch County Sheriff Jared Rigby hangs in the sheriff’s office in December 2021. (Photo by Adam Herbets/Utah Investigative Journalism Project)
By Katie McKellar
Embattled Wasatch County Sheriff Jared Rigby sent a letter to County Council members Tuesday night offering to go on paid administrative leave until his term ends at the end of the year. The message was received just before council members were expected to vote on a resolution calling for Rigby to resign.
Rigby — and former Summit County Sheriff Dave Edmunds — were both charged about a month ago with obstruction of justice in a case tied to the high-profile prosecution of Kouri Richins, the realtor convicted of poisoning her husband with a fentanyl-laced cocktail and then writing a children’s book about grief.
The Capitol in Salt Lake City is pictured on Monday, May 6, 2024. (Photo by Spenser Heaps for Utah News Dispatch)
By Alixel Cabrera
Utah lawmakers may soon evaluate how public universities hold tenured professors accountable after a legislative audit found the institutions struggle to correct instances in which faculty members are “persistently poor teachers.”
In some cases of misconduct or violation of policy, universities avoided going through the established process for termination and instead negotiated separation agreements. In one such case, a tenured faculty member who was found to have spent thousands of dollars on a university purchasing card for personal expenses bypassed the discipline protocol and was, instead, paid to leave.
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