Campaign Legal Center has been in court since 2022 on behalf of a bipartisan group of Utah voters, the League of Women Voters of Utah (LWVUT) and Mormon Women for Ethical Government (MWEG), to protect voters’ rights to fair maps and fair representation.
Following a long legal battle, a Utah state trial court has ruled in favor of our clients to reinstate Proposition 4 (Prop 4) and strike down the current gerrymandered congressional map. Prop 4 is a citizen-led ballot initiative that banned partisan gerrymandering and established the Utah Independent Redistricting Commission (UIRC).
Partisan gerrymandering is the practice of drawing congressional districts in a way that overly favors one political party. In effect, politicians take advantage of the redistricting process to pick and choose their own voters.
The UIRC was established to draw maps based on commonsense and neutral criteria, free from politicians’ partisan influence.
In 2020, the Utah Legislature repealed Prop 4, overriding the will of Utahns and paving the way for unfair maps. In a rushed and secretive process, the state legislature then passed a congressional map that was an extreme partisan gerrymander. Campaign Legal Center sued on behalf of LWVUT, MWEG and several individual voters, arguing that the repeal of Prop 4 was unconstitutional.
Following a historic win in the Utah Supreme Court holding that Utahns have a fundamental constitutional right to alter or reform their government, the case returned to the trial court to determine if the Utah State Legislature violated that right when they repealed Prop 4 and passed their own gerrymandered map.
The district court found that the repeal of Prop 4 was indeed unconstitutional, and in a victory for fair maps in Utah, Prop 4 has been reinstated. And, because the current congressional map violates Prop 4’s requirements, the map has been struck down.
The Utah State Legislature will now have 30 days to pass a new, lawful map that complies with Prop 4’s neutral redistricting requirements, and the court will ensure that a legal, fair map is in place for the 2026 election.
The current map exemplifies how a ruling political party can skew the electoral process by “cracking” voters from the minority party into multiple congressional districts to dilute their voting power.
It carves up Salt Lake County, home to Utah’s largest concentration of non-Republican voters in a primarily Republican state, among all four congressional districts, reliably ensuring that there are no competitive districts in Utah’s congressional delegation for the foreseeable future. But this decision ensures that future elections in Utah will take place under a fair congressional map.
The Utah Legislature asked the Utah Supreme Court to pause this decision, which we opposed, because it is past time that Utahns have a fair map. Fortunately, the court rejected the Utah Legislature's stay request, and a new fair map will be put in place for the 2026 election. The plaintiffs in this case have submitted two maps for consideration by the court, and further proceedings will determine which map is used.
And, the Utah Legislature has passed a bill that would undermine Prop 4's anti-gerrymandering purpose. So, we filed a supplemental complaint challenging this bill in our ongoing lawsuit since the Legislature is once again attempting to change the rules of the game to keep power for themselves. Campaign Legal Center will continue to fight alongside our clients to achieve fair voting maps, because voters should choose their politicians, and not the other way around.
And we also will continue to advocate for Congress to pass a nationwide solution prohibiting partisan gerrymandering and mandating fair congressional districts in all states.
You can support our work today to bring us one step closer to a day where all voters have fair maps.
