Ross Carl "Rocky" Anderson II (born September 9, 1951) is an American attorney, writer, activist, and civil and human rights advocate. He served two terms as the 33rd Mayor of Salt Lake City, Utah, from 2000 to 2008.
Prior to serving as mayor, Anderson practiced law for 21 years in Salt Lake City, during which he was 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 and returned to his legal practice, frequently bringing legal challenges to government programs. Anderson also served as the 2012 presidential nominee for his newly created Justice Party, receiving 43,000 votes out of more than 129 million votes cast. Anderson ran again for mayor of Salt Lake City in the 2023 mayoral election, but he lost to incumbent Erin Mendenhall 58% to 34%.
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.Rocky Anderson, "A Call for Compassion," Dialogue – A Journal of Mormon Thought (Vol. 42 No. 2 Summer 2009), at v 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 ceremonies 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,Rocky Anderson, "A Call for Compassion," Dialogue – A Journal of Mormon Thought (Vol. 42 No. 2 Summer 2009), at v-vi arguing that it violates the principle of personal conscience and individual moral development and accountability."The Other Rocky" , The Nation; accessed January 22, 2017.
Amidst a wide variety of courses, Anderson studied ethics, political philosophy, and religious philosophy at the University of Utah.The Other Rocky , The Nation; accessed January 22, 2017.
During high school, 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 Sigma Chi – University of Utah – Salt Lake City, Utah – Fraternity Houses, Waymarking.com; accessed January 22, 2017. 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.""The Other Rocky" , The Nation; accessed January 22, 2017.
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."Rocky's Road to Progress" LA Times; accessed January 22, 2017. In 1978, Anderson graduated, with honors, from George Washington University Law School, earning his Juris Doctor.
Career Law Practice Upon graduation from law school, Anderson returned to Salt Lake City to practice law. He participated in several jury trials in federal and state courts and handled appeals before the Utah Court of Appeals, the Utah Supreme Court, the United States District Court for the District of Utah (in an appeal from Bankruptcy Court) and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit. Anderson had an extremely diverse legal practice and represented plaintiffs in dozens of major cases, involving a wide variety of issues, including securities fraud, violation of church and state separation, civil rights, professional malpractice, abuse of incarcerated people, child sex abuse, and First and Fourth Amendment violations.Reported cases reflect the diversity of Anderson's legal practice, which included hundreds of cases not reported. See footnote 38 supra.
Before he was elected Mayor of Salt Lake City, Anderson practiced law for twenty-one years in Salt Lake City, beginning as an associate with Berman & Giauque and later as a partner in Berman & Anderson; Hansen & Anderson; Anderson & Watkins; and Anderson & Karrenberg. After he returned to the practice of law in 2014, he was of counsel with Winder & Counsel, then was a partner at Lewis Hansen, and then practiced at Law Offices of Rocky Anderson until 2021, when he wound down his law practice and volunteered full-time as Executive Director of the Justice Party (later named Allied Justice). He specialized in civil litigation in several areas of law, including antitrust, securities fraud, commercial, product liability, professional malpractice and civil rights. He often represented individuals suing corporations or government entities, including plaintiffs in the following cases: Bradford v. Moench: A consumer rights lawsuit in which Anderson successfully asserted a novel securities law theory and achieved, in a precedent-setting decision, broad protections for depositors in inadequately insured "thrift and loan" companies.Bradford v. Moench, 670 F. Supp. 920 (D. Utah 1987); 809 F. Supp. 1473 (D. Utah 1992) Scott v. Hammock: A lawsuit in which Anderson represented a young woman who had been sexually abused by her adoptive father. During the case, Anderson challenged the right of confidentiality that the L.D.S Church asserted regarding non-penitential communications by the defendant with his Mormon bishop."Disclosures to Clergy Debated" Deseret News University of Utah Students Against Apartheid v. Peterson: A case in which plaintiffs successfully asserted their First Amendment rights to symbolic speech after the university administration ordered them to remove shanties used to protest the university's investments in South Africa. (Anderson filed an amicus brief for the ACLU in the case.)University of Utah Students Against Apartheid v. Peterson, 649 F.Supp. 1200 (D. Utah 1986) Armstrong v. McCotter: A civil rights case involving a young mentally ill man, Michael Valent, who, while incarcerated in prison, died from a pulmonary embolism after being strapped naked in a restraint chair for 16 hours solely because of conduct linked to his schizophrenia."It Happened Here First: Exporting America's Most Notorious Prison Officials to Abu Ghraib", november.org; accessed January 22, 2017. Bott v. Deland: A civil rights case based upon deliberate indifference toward and unnecessarily rigorous treatment of an incarcerated person with a severe medical problem. The case established, for the first time, protections for the rights of incarcerated people under the Utah Constitution far broader than under the United States Constitution. In that case, the Utah Supreme Court agreed that financial damages, not limited by state statute, are available for violations of the protections provided for incarcerated people under the State Constitution.Bott v. Deland, 922 P.2d 732 (Utah 1996) Regan v. Salt Lake County: A class action challenging invasive searches, including strip searches, of women held on minor violations at the Salt Lake County Jail.http://www.deseretnews.com/article/468912/SL-ATTORNEY-TO-JOIN-2ND-DISTRICT-RACE.html "Strip-search decree is history", Salt Lake City Tribune; accessed January 22, 2017. Prettyman v. Salt Lake City: A civil rights case involving the excessive use of force by police, resulting in the breaking of a rod in the plaintiff's back."S.L. Police Ordered to Turn Over Internal Reports", Deseret News; accessed January 22, 2017. Harding v. Walles: A civil rights case involving the sexual abuse of a male prison inmate by a prison guard."ACLU Sues Prison Over Alleged Sex Abuse – Officials Failed to Take Proper Action When Guard Coerced Inmate Suit Claims", Deseret News; accessed January 22, 2017. Mitchell v. Roberts: A child sex abuse case, seeking to protect the right, created by the Utah Legislature, to sue a perpetrator even if the prior statute of limitations had already run. Cinema Pub v. Petilos: Successfully vindicated the First Amendment rights of a local theater that serves alcohol after the Utah D.A.B.C. sought to sanction the business for showing the movie Deadpool. Kendall v. Olsen: Sought justice regarding the warrantless invasion of a private backyard by a police officer who unjustifiably shot and killed the resident's beloved dog.
Anderson helped to spearhead the reform of Utah's child custody laws. He worked to institute a program to help those who do not qualify for assistance through Legal Aid or Legal Services, but who are unable to afford to pay in full for legal representation.Bar Lauds Distinguished Service, Deseret News; accessed January 22, 2017. Anderson served as Chair of the Litigation Section of the Utah State Bar Association"S.L. Attorney to Join 2nd District Race" Deseret News; accessed January 22, 2017. (when the Litigation Section was recognized by the Utah Bar Association as the Section of the YearUtah State Bar Awards Recipients ), and as president of Anderson and Karrenberg, a Salt Lake City law firm.
Volunteer work with non-profit organizations and activism. When he was practicing law, Anderson was affiliated with several non-profit organizations dedicated to protecting civil rights, providing educational opportunities for economically disadvantaged children, protecting reproductive freedom, improving the penal and criminal justice systems, and strengthening legislative ethics. He served as president of the boards of the ACLU of Utah,ACLU of Utah 50th Anniversary Celebration Guadalupe Schools,Rocky Anderson's Speech, Salt Lake Tribune; accessed January 22, 2017. and Citizens for Penal Reform, which he founded. He served as a board member of several other community-based non-profit organizations, including Planned Parenthood Association of Utah"The Other Rocky" The Nation; accessed (for whom he also performed pro bono legal services, including a successful lawsuit to obtain an occupancy certificate for a new clinic, which had been denied because of community opposition to a family planning clinic) and Utah Common Cause. On behalf of Common Cause, Anderson lobbied for stronger legislation pertaining to ethical conduct by elected officials, as well as for campaign finance reform.