The Republican-led Utah state legislature remains committed to combating the legal challenge it now faces over the 2021 congressional maps it drew, which were recently thrown out by a third district judge.
In a press release on Thursday, the legislature’s leadership said Judge Dianna Gibson’s ruling “unconstitutionally ties the Legislature’s hands by mandating certain redistricting criteria when the U.S. and Utah constitutions leave it to the people’s representatives in the legislature to redistrict.”
In an interview Thursday, House Speaker Mike Schultz, R-Hooper, told the Deseret News that Article Nine of the Utah Constitution could not be clearer on whose role it is to establish congressional district boundaries.
Schultz said the Utah Constitution “clearly says” the legislature is in charge of redistricting. ”And so, ultimately, to have a court or a judge make the final decision on this, it’s not right,” he said.
The lawsuit against the legislature’s maps was filed by the organization Better Boundaries. In 2018, Utah voters passed Proposition 4, a ballot initiative proposed by the group to ensure what they called fair voting maps in Republican-dominated Utah. It passed, but very narrowly — 50.34% voted yes, 49.66% no.
Then, in the 2020 legislative session, the bill SB200 was introduced and passed to “address provisions” in the proposition. It transformed the Utah Independent Redistricting Commission created by the proposition into an advisory body.
But Schultz said Better Boundaries was at the table during the creation of the 2021 congressional maps.
“The legislature at the time worked collaboratively with Better Boundaries, and there was an agreement reached and a compromise reached,” he said. “They locked arms in the Gold Room and announced that they had a compromise path forward. And that just all got thrown out.”
“This judge has taken the decision out of the elected officials’ hands — those that are elected by the people to represent the people.”
In her ruling, Gibson sided with the groups backing the initiative that the legislature’s enactment of S.B. 200 unconstitutionally impaired Proposition 4. The lawmakers now have less than 30 days to essentially create new congressional maps that meet the standards laid out in Proposition 4.
Schultz noted that back in 2020, lawmakers in charge of drawing the maps traveled all over the state and held over 20 public hearings over about six months to gain input from voters on how to draw the boundary lines.
“It is not fair to the citizens of the state to rush this type of a process on drawing these maps that are so important to the state of Utah. This shouldn’t be done in less than 30 days,” Schultz said.
He’s hoping Gibson will give more clarity on what she is expecting in her hearing to discuss scheduling on Friday.
In the lawmakers’ press release, they said that legal action will be taken and they will request that the Utah Supreme Court stay the judge’s deadline.
“You don’t get the best maps by trying to rush them,” he said. “What they’re trying to do is to gerrymander to get one Democrat” in Salt Lake County.
The most controversial aspect of the 2021 congressional maps is that lawmakers divided Salt Lake County, which leans Democratic, into all four districts. Critics of the current maps drawn by the legislators in 2021 say that those boundaries dilute the impact of voters from the state’s largest county and give Republicans an edge in all four districts.
But Schultz argues that dividing Salt Lake County is the fairest route for both urban and rural Utahns.
“We want Congressmen and women that understand the needs of the whole state, not just certain areas of the state,” he said. “I would argue that having four members represent them is what gives them the better representation.”
Better Boundaries issued a statement on Thursday, doubling down on what they see as the standards lawmakers should follow.
“Prop 4 required equal population in districts, minimized city and county splits, emphasized compact and contiguous boundaries, preserved neighborhoods and communities of interest, and followed natural geographic features. The measure also prohibited maps drawn to favor politicians or parties,” they said.
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