Salt Lake City ? Slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. is honored with a federal holiday observed today and it’s a state holiday in Utah – with the exception of the state’s lawmakers, who will report to work.

Civil rights leaders say the state – which doesn’t have a single black legislator – should be ashamed of itself for opening its annual session the same day every year.

Utah was the last state in the nation to establish a King holiday.

Lawmakers insist it’s out of their hands because the Utah Constitution requires them to convene on the third Monday in January, the same day designated in 2001 as the state holiday honoring the slain civil rights leader.

The constitution, however, has been changed before. Voters did it a few months ago so businesses wouldn’t have to pay property taxes on items such as office furniture.