The Utah Legislature must swiftly redraw the state’s congressional districts following a judge’s decision on Monday, which found that the Republican-dominated assembly bypassed measures designed by voters to prevent political favoritism in map drawing.
The map currently in use, implemented in 2021, splits Salt Lake County—Utah’s most populous area and a Democratic bastion—across the state’s four congressional districts. Since its adoption, each district has consistently elected Republican representatives by substantial margins.
District Court Judge Dianna Gibson did not focus on the specifics of the map itself but deemed it illegal due to lawmakers’s efforts to undermine the independent commission endorsed by voters to reduce partisan gerrymandering.
“The violation stems from the Legislature’s failure to respect the people’s constitutional authority to make laws and to uphold their right to governmental reform,” noted Gibson in her judgment.
New district boundaries must be established promptly, with candidates beginning to file early next year for the 2026 midterm elections. The court’s decision provides lawmakers with a deadline of Sept. 24 and permits voting rights organizations involved in the lawsuit to propose alternative plans.
But appeals expected from Republican officials could help them run out the clock to possibly delay adopting new maps until 2028.
Redistricting battle could shift the balance in Congress
This decision introduces uncertainty in a traditionally GOP-dominated state as the party gears up to maintain its narrow lead in the U.S. House. Nationally, Democrats need to gain three seats next year to control the House. Historically, the party of the sitting president typically loses seats during midterms, reflective of the trend during President Donald Trump’s term in 2018.
Trump has urged several Republican-led states to add winnable seats for the GOP. In Texas, a plan awaiting Gov. Greg Abbott’s approval includes five new districts that would favor Republicans. Ohio Republicans already were scheduled to revise their maps to make them more partisan, and Indiana, Florida and Missouri may choose to make changes. Some Democrat-led states say they may enter the redistricting arms race, but so far only California has taken action to offset GOP gains in Texas.
The U.S. Supreme Court is unlikely to intervene, and the Utah Supreme Court may be hesitant to entertain an appeal of Monday’s ruling after it had sent the case back to Gibson for her to decide.
The nation’s high court in 2019 ruled that claims of partisan gerrymandering for congressional and legislative districts are outside the purview of federal courts and should be decided by states.
Voting rights groups celebrate legal victory
David Reymann, an attorney for the voting rights advocates who challenged the map, called the ruling a “watershed moment” for the voices of Utah voters.
“The Legislature in this state is not king,” Reymann told reporters Monday evening.
Leaders from the Democratic National Committee and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee applauded the ruling as a victory for democracy.
Republican Gov. Spencer Cox said he disagrees with the decision but holds respect for Utah’s judiciary. Meanwhile, the state’s GOP Chairman, Robert Axson, dismissed the ruling as “judicial activism.”
Utah’s Republican legislative leaders, Senate President Stuart Adams and House Speaker Mike Schultz, said in a joint statement that they are disappointed by the ruling and are carefully considering their next steps.
In 2018, voters narrowly approved a ballot initiative that created an independent redistricting commission to draw boundaries for Utah’s legislative and congressional districts, which the Legislature was required to consider. Lawmakers repealed the initiative in 2020 and replaced it with a law that transformed the commission into an advisory board that they could choose to ignore.
The following year, lawmakers disregarded a congressional map proposal from the commission and drew one of their own that carved up Salt Lake County among four reliably Republican districts.
Voting rights advocates sued, arguing the map drawn by lawmakers constituted partisan gerrymandering that favored Republicans. They also said the Legislature violated the rights of voters when it repealed and replaced the 2018 initiative.
The case made its way to the Utah Supreme Court, which ruled that the Legislature cannot change laws approved through ballot initiatives except to reinforce them, or to advance a compelling government interest. The five-member panel sent the case back to Gibson in the lower court to decide whether lawmakers would have to redraw boundaries set as part of a redistricting process that happens every 10 years.
Lawmakers and voters clash over redistricting
The ruling Monday reinstates the voter-approved redistricting standards that lawmakers had overturned.
Utah was one of four states where voters approved measures designed to reduce partisan gerrymandering in 2018. As in Utah, Missouri’s Republican-led Legislature quickly sought to repeal key provisions. Missouri voters approved the Legislature’s revisions in 2020, before the original plan was ever used. Independent commissions approved by Colorado and Michigan voters remained in place and were used after the 2020 census.
The redistricting measures aren’t the only instances where state lawmakers have altered voter-approved measures.
Earlier this year, Missouri lawmakers repealed a paid sick leave law passed by voters and referred a proposed repeal of an abortion rights amendment to the ballot. In South Dakota, voters approved a public campaign finance system, tightened lobbying laws and created an ethics commission in 2016. Lawmakers repealed and replaced the measure the next year with a narrower government watchdog board and looser limits on lobbyist gifts to public officials.
