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SALT LAKE CITY — In the wake of a favorable court ruling in July, the League of Women Voters of Utah and Mormon Women for Ethical Government are pushing Utah lawmakers to redraw the maps for Utah's four congressional districts in time for 2026 elections.
"It is the next step," said Katharine Biele, president of the League of Women Voters in the state.
In response to the July 11 Utah Supreme Court ruling favoring the league and Mormon Women for Ethical Government in their lawsuit against the Utah Legislature, the plaintiffs filed a motion Wednesday in 3rd District Court in Salt Lake City pressing for action from lawmakers. Biele said Friday that they want lawmakers to adopt one of three sets of district maps crafted by a special redistricting commission in 2021 or craft maps using the guidelines that governed the commission's efforts.
"Because it is undisputed that the current congressional map did not comply with Proposition 4's procedural requirements, the map must be enjoined," the filing states. The maps lawmakers approved would be used for this year's U.S. House elections, but the motion calls for a new map for 2026 "compliant with Proposition 4," the 2018 ballot initiative approved by voters that's at the center of the lawsuit against lawmakers, filed in 2022.
Representatives from the Legislature have not yet filed a court response to the filing and said little in response to the motion.
"The case is still going through the litigation process to answer important constitutional questions, and we look forward to presenting our arguments to the court," reads a statement from the Republican-led Legislature's communications team.
The flap over Proposition 4 was the focus of a special legislative session last week, when lawmakers voted to put a constitutional amendment question to voters on the Nov. 5 ballot that enshrines their right to revise citizen-led ballot initiatives in the Utah Constitution. While related, though, Biele said Wednesday's filing was in response to the July 11 determination that lawmakers overstepped their authority in sidestepping the provisions of Proposition 4.
Per Proposition 4 — touted by proponents as a guard against gerrymandering — a special commission was created to draw up new redistricting maps in connection with the national headcount carried out every 10 years. A commission drew up maps in the wake of the 2020 U.S. Census, but Utah lawmakers watered down the body's role to an advisory one with SB200 in 2020 and then adopted their own maps in 2021, ignoring the commission proposals. That led to the filing of the 2022 lawsuit by the League of Women Voters and others, the July 11 Utah Supreme Court ruling and last week's decision to put a constitutional question on the matter to voters in November.
Republican Utah lawmakers see the July 11 ruling as a dangerous precedent that would let special-interest groups pursue ballot initiatives that, if approved, lawmakers would be hard-pressed to revise or change. The proposed amendment would codify lawmakers' ability to tweak, revise and even repeal initiatives approved at the ballot box.
Irksome to some critics of the new U.S. House maps drawn up by lawmakers in 2022, was the division of Salt Lake County, where the power of Democrats in the state is focused.
"The Legislature's map split Salt Lake County into four pieces — across all four congressional districts — including splitting the city of Millcreek across all four districts," Wednesday's filing says. The map, it goes on, violates a "prohibition on partisan gerrymandering" spelled out in Proposition 4.
As part of the process of redrawing new district's, the motion asks the court to impose a 30-day deadline for lawmakers to come up with new congressional district maps. It also calls for allowances for filing of objections to any new maps crafted by lawmakers.
