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A Utah gun rights group has launched a last-minute campaign to oust two judges up for retention on Tuesday.
Gun Owners of Utah (GOUtah!) claim in an e-mail alert sent Friday to its 1,200 members that 3rd District Judge Leslie Lewis and Utah Supreme Court Justice Ronald Nehring are prejudiced against people who legally carry firearms.
Nehring, the group says, was one of the "main ringleaders" of what it believes was an illegal effort to discriminate against concealed-weapon permit holders.
In 2001, the Legislature passed a law requiring justice and state courts to either install gun-storage lockers outside security perimeters or allow people legally carrying a firearm to bring their weapon into the courtroom.
Nehring, who at the time was the presiding judge of 3rd District Court, refused to install the lockers or allow people legally carrying a firearm into courtrooms, the group says. He also signed a resolution encouraging other Utah courts to take the same approach.
The Utah Judicial Council suspended selected council rules in May 2002 in order to sidestep the law and avoid a showdown with the Legislature. At the time, Nehring said the safety concerns of storing guns outweighed the need for storage lockers.
N.W. Clayton, a spokesman for Gun Owners of Utah, wrote in the e-mail that Nehring "flouted" the law, "thumbing his nose at the state Legislature, which passed the law, and the governor, who signed it."
Nehring told The Salt Lake Tribune on Friday that his actions followed the letter of the law.
"The [state] Senate, which was one of the bodies that passed that law, confirmed my appointment [to the Utah Supreme Court] being fully aware of the circumstances surrounding what I did as the presiding judge," he said. "This topic was raised during my confirmation hearing and was fully aired at that time."
Nehring said he had a conversation with several state senators who, he believes, understood his position on the issue. All but one senator confirmed his appointment to the high court.
"The governor who signed the [gun-storage locker] bill was the same governor who appointed me," he said.
GOUtah! is also campaigning against Lewis, who it says has a prejudice against deer hunters. That claim is related to a February hearing in Lewis' courtroom during which she berated the brother of a man accused of poaching a deer.
Lewis, the group notes, is also being investigated by the Utah Judicial Conduct Commission for reducing the sentence of a convicted sex offender without following proper court procedure.
The judge was not available for comment Friday, said state court spokeswoman Nancy Volmer.
But defense attorney Greg Skordas said he planned to vote for Lewis because "she does good work on the bench."
In particular, Skordas noted Lewis' dedication to defendants who wish to kick their drug addictions.
When a defendant reports progress, Lewis asks the whole courtroom to join in a round of applause. And one wall of the judge's courtroom is plastered with snapshots of people who have successfully completed probations.
"She brings people back to her courtroom," Skordas said. "She's keeping them close and watching them. She doesn't just sentence them and be done with them."
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* STEPHEN HUNT contributed to this story.