Utah

The Utah Supreme Court has approved a new legal profession: limited paralegal practitioners, The Salt Lake Tribune's Jessica Miller reports. The new legal professional category has been created to help more citizens access the justice system.

The LLPs could assist clients outside of the courtroom--but not inside--by filling out forms, representing clients in mediations or preparing settlements.

Utah Supreme Court Deno Himonas told Miller "'we need to come up with an economically viable model that will help improve access for those individuals in our civil justice system."'

Washington state has started a similiar intiative to use non-lawyers to help close the justice gap.

Utah will not be expanding Medicaid, The Washington Examiner's Paige Winfield Cunningham reports. Lawmakers ended their session this week without adopting an expansion.

Even though Republican Governor Gary Herbert wanted to expand health coverage for more low-income Utah residents, legislators could not reach agreement on an expansion plan, according to Cunningham: "Utah's stalemate puts it among a number of states with GOP governors who have recently tried — but failed — to get their legislatures to approve alternative Medicaid expansion plans. Those states include Tennessee, Idaho and Wyoming."

Utah has enacted a law that allows county clerks to opt out of performing same-sex marriage on religious grounds as long as somene else in their office is willing to perform them, reports Fox 13, the affiliate in Salt Lake City: "The bill was an attempt to address religious objections over same-sex marriage, while also guaranteeing what the courts had ordered when it legalized such unions last year."

A duel is being set up between the Utah Senate and the Utah House on how much to expand Medicaid, The Salt Lake Tribune's Kristen Moulton reports. A House committee voted down a plan backed by the governor and passed by the Senate. Instead, the House Business and Labor Committee passed a plan sponsored by the House majority leader that would cover 46,500 more people.

Legislators in Utah have rejected Governor Gary Herbert's alternative plan to providing Medicaid expansion to low-income Utah residents in favor of two even more limited proposals, The Salt Lake Tribune's Kristen Moulton reports. The Legislature’s Health Reform Task Force "proposed recommending options that would cover between 12.5 percent and 20 percent of those below the federal poverty line — but only those who are mentally ill, addicted, disabled or too sick to work," Moulton reports. The governor's plan would cover 46,000 people.

David Patton, executive director of the Utah Department of Health, told Moulton he is still hopeful that the full Legislature will pass Medicaid expansion.

The Tenth Circuit ruled today that Utah's ban on same-sex marriage violates the equal protection clause of the U.S. Constitution, while a federal judge in Indiana rejected that state's ban on same-sex matrimony, USA Today reports. The 10th Circuit ruling is the first appellate ruling in the country, USA Today further reports.

The Utah Supreme Court has temporarily halted the issuance of birth certificates in same-sex parent adoptions, the Associated Press reports. One district court had ordered government officials to explain the state's refusal to recognize a same-sex couple's adoption, the AP further reports.

The 10th Circuit is currently deciding whether to uphold a lower-court ruling striking down Utah's ban on same-sex marriage.

Utah has filed its brief in the 10th Circuit defending the state's ban on same-sex marriage after a district judge struck it down as unconstitutional, Deseret News reports. One argument by the state is that there is nothing in the federal Constitution preventing Utah's citizens from limiting marriage to opposite-sex couples. A second argument by the state is "'redefining marriage as a genderless, adult-centric institution would fundamentally change Utah's child-centered meaning and purpose of marriage,'" the paper further reports. A third argument by the state is "that traditional marriage furthers the state's interests in accommodating religious freedom and preserving social harmony in the state, while redefining marriage would be a recipe for social and religious strife," the paper also reports.

The Washington Post reports that a lawsuit in Virginia challenging that state's ban on same-sex marriage might get to the U.S. Supreme Court before a case over Utah's same-sex marriage ban does. Oral arguments were just heard in the Virginia case, while a district court judge struck down Utah's ban already. That ruling is on appeal.

Even though the Utah case has advanced farther, "the Virginia cases are moving quickly, and some lawyers are hopeful they emerge through the appeals process as favored vehicles for an ultimate decision by the Supreme Court," The Post further reports.

Separately, a class action to challenge Virginia's ban on same-sex matrimony just got approval to proceed.

The Republican governor of Utah has announced an expansion of Medicaid, Huffington Post reports. Many Republican states have resisted the expansion of Medicaid under Obamacare as too expensive. But Governor Gary Herbert "pointed to the 60,000 individuals in the state who will gain coverage under the state's expansion of the program, saying it's 'not fair' to leave them without a solution," Huffington Post further reports.

The Medicaid expansion was a key part of ensuring that lower-income Americans, including many working poor, would get health-care coverage under the new mandate that all Americans have health insurance. But the U.S. Supreme Court said that the expansion could not be mandated to the states by the federal government. That has left it up to the states on whether they'll accept federal dollars to implement the expansions.