Doe v. Utah Department of Public Safety

I dissent. The majority opinion reaches its result by indulging in generalities about what expungement statutes “generally” provide, based largely on a law review article which was written more than two decades before the enactment of the Utah statute. Instead, the majority should have focused on the wording of our statute and the significant legislative history behind that wording.

The expungement statute which is under examination in this case, Utah Code Ann. § 77-18-2 (Supp.1985) (amended 1987), was enacted in 1980. It is set out in full in the majority opinion. Prior to 1980, our…