A Utah judge late Monday rejected new congressional district boundaries drawn by Republican state lawmakers, instead approving a new map that clearly outlines a Democratic seat with Salt Lake City voters that is likely to change in next year's midterm elections.
The decision is a blow for Republicans, who drew the map to protect the state's GOP congressional delegation, and a big win for Democrats, who have struggled to find seats to reciprocate Republican redistricting efforts in the middle of the decade and win control of the House.
The decision is the latest in a years-long legal battle over Utah's anti-gerrymandering rules that began long before the national redistricting arms race that unfolded this year.
Utah voters narrowly approved a ballot initiative in 2018 that would create an independent redistricting commission that recommends maps to Congress and enshrines anti-gerrymandering rules in law. The GOP-controlled Legislature tried to circumvent the changes by weakening the commission and ignoring its proposed map after the 2020 census.
Advocates, including the League of Women Voters of Utah and Mormon Women for Ethical Government, filed the lawsuit alleging Republican lawmakers engaged in gerrymandering in violation of the law. The district court agreed with the plaintiffs and ordered the Legislature to draw a new map.
The map drawn by GOP lawmakers would have created four districts that were solidly Republican or leaned Republican, although two would have been more competitive than the current draft. He proposed dividing the populous Salt Lake County into two districts instead of four.
But Utah District Court Judge Dianne Gibson rejected that map in favor of the plaintiffs' map. In her late-night ruling, she concluded that Republicans impermissibly took into account political data and gerrymandered to benefit their party.
Instead, she chose a congressional map called “Map 1,” which includes a Democratic district located in northern Salt Lake County; That's about 43% Republican, according to court documents.
The court's overnight ruling came just before state election officials were set to begin preparing for next year's primary election Tuesday morning.
Republicans also vowed to pursue a ballot initiative to repeal the anti-gerrymandering measure passed by voters in 2018.
Utah, along with Ohio, is one of two states required to redraw their maps this year. But they had plenty of company: Texas, Missouri and North Carolina passed new maps to bolster the GOP's narrow majority in the U.S. House of Representatives at the urging of President Donald Trump.
In response, voters in California last week approved a new map designed to give Democrats up to five seats in the House of Representatives. And the Virginia Democrats last month took the first step to mid-decade redistricting.
Several states, led by Republicans and Democrats, are also considering redrawing their maps.
