War of words continues following overnight court ruling on Utah redistricting map

SALT LAKE CITY – Following an overnight ruling from the Third District Court in Salt Lake City, Republicans and Democrats in Utah are reacting along party lines.

In that ruling, Judge Dianna Gibson rejected a congressional district map proposed by the Utah Legislature in favor of one proposed by local voting-rights groups.

In siding with the plaintiffs in the Utah redistricting case, Gibson ruled that the GOP approved map, known as Map C, violated Utah's citizen-passed anti-gerrymandering law known as Proposition 4.

At issue is whether majority Democrats in Salt Lake County will get an opportunity to elect their own representative to Congress.

“The people have a right to alter and reform their government,” insists Brian King, the chairman of the Utah Democratic Party, applauding Gibson’s ruling. “Now, they are finally getting the un-gerrymandered map they voted for.”

From the other side of the political aisle, GOP chair Robert Axson railed that Gibson’s ruling was another blatant example of judicial activism.

“After stretching the law to justify taking control of redistricting,” he argued, “she has now rejected Map C – the only option that respected the Legislature’s constitutional role – and imposed a map of activists who are not accountable to Utahns.”

As proposed by the Utah Legislature, Map C would have split three cities (North Salt Lake, Millcreek and Pleasant Grove) and three counties (Davis, Salt Lake and Utah) in an effort to preserve the status quo of the state’s delegation in Congress.

But Gibson concluded that Republicans in the Legislature had considered political data and gerrymandered in favor of their own party in drawing that map.

Instead, she directed the state to accept the plaintiff’s Map 1 that includes a Democrat-leaning district anchored in northern Salt Lake County.

Gibson’s ruling also drew praise from Ken Martin, the chair of the Democratic National Committee, emphasizing that Map 1 better reflects “the diversity and ideological makeup of the state.”

“Democrats will continue to fight for fair maps in Utah,” he said, “regardless of what Donald Trump and Utah Republicans try next. Every seat (in Congress) counts and Democrats everywhere are fired up and ready to take back the House in the midterms in 2026.”

From the Republican point of view, what comes next is a direct voter initiative to repeal Proposition 4 and restore constitutional balance in Utah.

“This is bigger than maps,” according to Axson. “It is a direct threat to our constitutional order.

“Prop 4 created confusion and this ruling escalates it into a constitutional crisis.”

Back in 2018, Utah voters passed the Proposition 4 ballot initiative, which created an independent redistricting commission to redraw state congressional maps.

In 2020, the Utah Legislature repealed and replaced the ballot initiative with a law that made the commission purely advisory. The legislature then drew its own congressional maps in 2021 that ignored the commission's recommendations, especially slicing up Salt Lake City to carefully dilute Democrats’ influence.

An advocacy coalition comprised of the League of Women Voters and the Mormon Women for Ethical Government sued the state in March of 2022 and the issue has been moving through state courts at glacial pace ever since.