Rocky Anderson occupation lawyer
Ross Carl "Rocky" Anderson (born September 9, 1951) is an American attorney, writer, activist, civil and human rights advocate. He served two terms as the 33rd Mayor of Salt Lake City, Utah from 2000 to 2008. He is currently running for a third term.Prior to serving as Mayor, Anderson practiced law for 21 years in Salt Lake City, during which time he was listed in Best Lawyers in America, received the highest rating, A-V, by Martindale-Hubbell, served as chair of the Utah State Bar Litigation Section and was Editor-in-Chief of, and a contributor to, Voir Dire legal journal. He was also the 1996 Democratic nominee for Congress in Utah’s Second Congressional District.Following his terms as mayor, Anderson founded and served as the Executive Director of High Road for Human Rights (2008–2011), a human rights education and advocacy organization, and was a founding member of the Justice Party, which nominated Anderson as its presidential nominee in 2012. That election he was also nominated by the Natural Law PartyAfter the 2012 presidential campaign, Anderson taught for two semesters as an adjunct instructor at the University of Utah, then practiced law again until February 2021, during which time, among many other things, he challenged the NSA’s and former President Bush’s illegal surveillance, won an important First Amendment case against the Utah Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control, successfully challenged the Utah Legislature’s scheme requiring that all medical cannabis be distributed by state or local health department officials instead of by the private sector, and successfully resolved major civil rights cases involving a wrongful police shooting, and the wrongful death of a pretrial detainee in the Salt Lake County Jail. Anderson then served as a full-time volunteer Executive Director of the Justice Party (now Allied Justice ) until beginning his campaign in August 2022 for another term as Mayor of Salt Lake City.As mayor, Anderson was a major leader and advocate relating to several national and international causes, including climate protection, immigration reform, restorative criminal justice, LGBTQ+ rights, and an end to the "War on Drugs". Before and after the 2003 invasion of Iraq, Anderson was a leading national opponent of the invasion and occupation of Iraq,  and a leading opponent of illegal surveillance and torture. Anderson was named by Bloomberg BusinessWeek as one of the top-twenty activists in the world regarding the climate crisis. He was a member of the Newsweek Global Environmental Leadership Advisory Board and was recognized by the Human Rights Campaign as one of the top ten straight advocates in the United States for LGBT equality. He has received numerous awards for his work, including the EPA Climate Protection Award, the Sierra Club Distinguished Service Award, the Respect the Earth Planet Defender Award, the Terra Firma Environmental Leadership Award, the National Association of Hispanic Publications Presidential Award, The Drug Policy Alliance Richard J. Dennis Drugpeace Award, the Progressive Democrats of America Spine Award, the League of United Latin American Citizens Profile in Courage Award, the Bill of Rights Defense Committee Patriot Award, the Code Pink (Salt Lake City) Pink Star honor, the Morehouse College Gandhi, King, Ikeda Award, the Human Rights Campaign Equality Award, the Freedom to Marry Voice for Equality Award, the LGBTQ+ Community Center of Utah Champion’s Award, the Utah Pride Political Action Award, and the World Leadership Award (London) for environmental programs.Formerly a member of the Democratic Party who won several Best Utah Democrat Awards and several Best Utah Elected Official Awards, Anderson expressed his disappointment with that party in 2011.Early life and education
Ross C. "Rocky" Anderson was born in Logan, Utah, one of three children of Roy and Grace Anderson. His parents both worked at Anderson Lumber Company, a local lumber yard founded by Rocky's great-grandfather, a Norwegian immigrant carpenter who had converted to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church).Though Anderson does not currently consider himself to be a Mormon, he was raised as one and was a practicing member of the LDS Church in Logan. He has described his disagreement with certain doctrines of the LDS Church, particularly the denial of the priesthood to men of black African descent and the denial to Black men and women of the right to engage in religious temple ceremonies (see Black people and Mormonism) prior to 1978. Anderson has likewise expressed his disagreement with the LDS Church’s teachings and policies relating to members of the LGBTQ+ community. Anderson also expresses disagreement with what he describes as the LDS teaching of personal moral abdication through obedience to people in positions of authority. Anderson believes in the principle of personal conscience and individual moral development and accountability, and considers any call for blind obedience as being incompatible with that principle.Amidst a wide variety of courses, Anderson studied ethics, political philosophy, and religious philosophy at the University of Utah.During high school (He attended Ogden High School, built as a WPA project during the Great Depression), Anderson played lead guitar in a rock and roll band, the Viscounts, and worked at a cabinet and roof truss plant. He also shingled roofs during his high school and college years. After graduating from Ogden High School, Anderson attended the University of Utah, during which time he served as Treasurer for the Beta Epsilon chapter of Sigma Chi Fraternity and worked at various jobs, including as a truck driver, a roofer, and a gas station manager. He earned a bachelor's degree in philosophy, graduating magna cum laude. After reading existentialist literature and several works on ethics, religious philosophy, and political philosophy, he had a "powerful epiphany. We can't escape responsibility, there's no sitting out moral decisions, and whenever we refuse to stand up against wrongdoing we're actually supporting the status quo."After graduating from the University of Utah, Anderson worked at several jobs. He built buck fence at a ranch in Wyoming, tended bar in Salt Lake City, drove a cab, waited tables at a restaurant, worked at a methadone clinic, typed freight bills, and worked in construction.He started graduate school in philosophy at the University of Utah, then traveled to Europe and lived and worked for a few months in Freiburg, Germany before returning to the United States to attend law school. In 1978, Anderson graduated, with honors, from George Washington University Law School, earning his Juris Doctor.
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