Last week it was revealed the state spent $1.2 million defending its constitutional ban on same-sex marriage. Our "Political Insiders" are split on whether that money was well spent.
A majority of the Republicans in our survey say the outlay was a good idea while all of the Democrats and a majority of our readers feel it was a waste.
You'll find some anonymous comments from our respondents below.
Selected anonymous comments:
"It is about as stupid as the new 'lets bail out Lyman with state- funded defense.'"
"The State has an obligation to defend the laws it has on the books."
"It would be refreshing for the Salt Lake Tribune to do a hard-hitting story on the tens of millions of dollars of waste, fraud, and abuse that negatively impacts Medicaid and other social welfare programs. Unfortunately, the Tribune only seems to care about how taxpayer money is spent when it pertains to an issue or policy that doesn't fit their liberal agenda."
"If it was a waste of money, it was one that the people chose when they passed Amendment 3."
"The representative government was spending money to defend the overwhelmingly voted will of its people is not wasting that money. The public lands case money is the money being wasted to satisfy a small percentage of the population."
"I would support doubling the amount spent if would change the outcome."
"Is it appropriate to find out whether a law passed by the legislature is constitutional or not? The answer is always yes if somebody brings a suit."
"1% of the population should not control the other 99%. Same-sex marriage should have been resolved at the ballot box and legislature, not the courts."
"At least we tried to defend what is right. I would spend that and more to protect marriage. It is unfortunate that five Supreme Court 'Justices' don't know how to read the Constitution."
"Hindsight is 20/20. Obviously it ended up being a waste of money, but that doesn't mean they shouldn't have done it. Based on the information at the time, upholding our state's laws is always going to money well spent."
"It was clearly unwinnable from the beginning. This was nothing more than expensive political posturing."
"Removing the silliness of the subject matter: how did Utah spend so much money on such terrible lawyers?"
"Our emotional impulses should not be funded by taxpayer funds when such commitments fail to recognize the Constitutional reality confronting such decisions in a changing world. It was a waste of money. We continue to chase the same principle in the public lands fight. There is still much for us to learn, but we refuse to let experience or reason be the guide."
"Spending money to fight a basic human right afforded all other citizens? Get real."
"Money spent trying to deny rights to a portion of our population is always money wasted."
"Trust our legislature to throw money down the toilet!"
"It's not the money that is a concern to me. It's the total lack of preparation by the AG's office to handle the situation. Sadly, John Swallow was MIA – trying to manage the fallout from his indiscretions – when he should have been making this his top priority. If the AG's office had been prepared, things might have gone differently."
"Unbelievable that we let a radical right wing group of Utah's dictate wasteful policies. It happened on abortion it's happening on same-sex marriage it is deplorable that our governor doesn't have the backbone to say no."
"This was the dumbest thing that the State government has done in a long time."
