By Robert Gehrke | Salt Lake Tribune | Photo by Francisco Kjolseth | Salt Lake Tribune

A bill that critics say could close the courthouse door when the public wants to challenge laws passed by lawmakers is moving through the Legislature.

The bill, SB203, sponsored by Pleasant Grove Republican Sen. Brady Brammer, would change the standards courts use to decide if associations have standing to bring lawsuits on behalf of their members.

The bill comes after groups like Planned Parenthood successfully petitioned the courts to block the Republican Legislature’s efforts to ban most abortions and the League of Women Voters and Mormon Women for Ethical Government (MWEG) stopped the Legislature’s attempts to empower themselves to repeal citizen-passed ballot initiatives.

Brammer said his concern is that associations have managed to use the vagueness of the current standards for standing to file lawsuits without having to show they are actually harmed.

“One of the concerns that we’ve had is in the jurisprudence around third party rights — it’s been fairly inconsistent,” Brammer told his colleagues Monday. “And then we’re also concerned with associational standing being used as part of … a level of lawfare that can be engaged in. And there’s some that’s okay, and some that’s not. And we want to make sure that it relates to actual injuries of Utahns.”

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This article is published through the Utah News Collaborative, a partnership of news organizations in Utah that aims to inform readers across the state.