A judge has rejected the Utah Legislature’s choice for a new congressional map, instead choosing one that creates a Democrat-leaning district in Salt Lake County.
The possibly game-changing decision for Utah Democrats is the latest in a years-long legal battle over how lines are drawn in Utah for congressional districts.
Years ago, voters approved an initiative called Proposition 4 that made an independent redistricting commission.
The legislature then gutted that initiative of its power, which sparked a lawsuit from multiple groups accusing them of ignoring the will of voters and gerrymandering Democratic voters.
Judge Dianna Gibson agreed with plaintiffs earlier this year and ordered lawmakers to redraw the maps to properly follow Prop 4 ahead of next year’s midterm elections.
Lawmakers drew several maps and decided on Map C, which split parts of Davis, Salt Lake, and Utah Counties, making it the most favorable of the lot for Republican representation.
They also made a new law that would require the use of certain tests to determine how fair a congressional map is — including partisan symmetry, which a 2021 academic study from Cambridge University Press found to be flawed and “paradoxical” in states like Utah.
Now, in a 91-page ruling late Monday night, Gibson rejected map C, saying it violated Prop 4 because it was drawn to unduly favor Republicans over Democrats.
Instead, she chose a map drawn by plaintiffs in the redistricting lawsuit which creates a compact, urban district in Salt Lake County — one that is likely Democrat-leaning.
Gibson also ruled against the partisan symmetry law, saying it, quote, “mandates the very partisan favoritism that Proposition 4 was enacted to stop.”
Republican lawmakers criticized the ruling for using a map designed by outside groups, claiming it was gerrymandered against Republicans. An appeal of the ruling is likely.
