Utah Legislature asks Third District Judge to pause decision to require new maps in 30 days

SALT LAKE CITY (ABC4) — On Monday, the Utah Legislature’s lawyers filed a motion for stay with the Third District Judge on her order to redraw congressional district maps in 30 days. Lawyers for both sides were also in court for a status conference hashing out whether they can agree on a new timeline for the order.

Judge Dianna Gibson ruled Monday that the Legislature unconstitutionally overrode a citizen ballot initiative by enacting its own maps.

The ruling was a major decision from the lower courts, revealing they deem Utah’s Congressional boundaries from H.B. 2004, which made the 2021 Congressional Map, were enacted unconstitutionally. Therefore, it cannot “lawfully govern future elections,” and the legislature must redistrict a new map.

Judge Gibson ruled that Proposition 4 is the law on redistricting in Utah.

In court on Friday, lawyers spent two hours debating whether they could amend Prop 4’s requirements that the legislature must publish their new version for 10 days before they vote on it.

Ultimately, Judge Gibson decided to ask Utah’s lieutenant governor via her lawyers to see if there was any wiggle room to push her Nov. 1 deadline back to Nov. 9 to give the parties more time and still get maps in time for the 2026 midterm elections.

Judge Gibson also said she will be reviewing the legislature’s arguments for why they deserve a stay and consider whether to grant it. She has, however, already denied a preemptive stay that the legislature requested last year. She clarified today that that ruling was not dictating her long term position on a stay, and that she will consider this stay.

Friday’s status conference comes after Utah Senate President J. Stuart Adams and Utah House Speaker Mike Schultz released a statement Thursday about their plans to redraw the maps “despite a misguided court ruling and an arbitrary 30-day deadline.”

Background on the lawsuit

This issue began in 2018, when Utah voters passed Proposition 4, a citizen ballot initiative run by Better Boundaries. The initiative created a redistricting commission to draw new boundary lines for Utah’s congressional districts and prohibited partisan gerrymandering.

In 2020, the Utah Legislature gutted the commission created by the initiative in S.B. 200, and it replaced maps with its own in H.B. 2004.

Plaintiffs filed the lawsuit arguing that the current district maps break up Salt Lake City into four districts that dilute minority votes in the traditionally red state. They also argued that Utahns have a constitutionally protected right to “alter and reform” their government, which was what Proposition 4 did before it was changed by the Legislature.

The Utah Supreme Court upheld the people’s right to alter and reform government in a major ruling from July of last year, which meant that the lawsuit was able to move forward in Utah’s lower court. Utah’s top lawmakers discredited the ruling, calling it the “worst decision they’ve ever seen.” Earlier this year, both parties argued the merits of the case before Judge Gibson.

The legislature’s filing of a motion for stay on Monday is being deliberated with the plaintiffs. Utah Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson has asked the court for the case to be finalized by November so that if new lines need to be drawn, they can be drawn before the 2026 midterm elections.