Utah’s Supreme Court rejects appeal to overturn congressional map with Democratic-leaning district

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Utah’s Supreme Court rejected on Friday an appeal by Republican lawmakers and left in place a congressional map that gives Democrats a high chance of picking up one of the state’s four Republican-held U.S. House seats in the fall.

In the order signed by Chief Justice Matthew B. Durrant, the court explained that they do not have “jurisdiction over Legislative Defendants’ appeal.”

The lawmakers had appealed a decision in November in which a Utah judge adopted a congressional map creating a Democratic-leaning district over one poised to protect all four of the state’s U.S. House seats held by Republicans.

The map keeps Salt Lake County almost entirely within one district, instead of dividing the heavily Democratic population center among all four districts, as was previously the case.

Republicans have argued the court does not have legal authority to enact a map that wasn’t approved by the Legislature.

Utah’s Republican Senate President Stuart Adams pushed back on the ruling, saying the “chaos continues.”

“We will keep defending a process that respects the Constitution and ensures Utah voters across our state have their voices respected,” he said in a statement.

Katharine Biele, president of the League of Women Voters of Utah, one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit, applauded the ruling.

“We are encouraged that the court dismissed this improper appeal and allowed the process to move forward without disruption to voters or election administrators,” she said in a statement.

The redistricting stems from an August decision in which Judge Dianna Gibson struck down the Utah congressional map adopted after the 2020 census because the Legislature had circumvented anti-gerrymandering standards passed by voters.

The ruling pushed the state into a national redistricting battle as President Donald Trump urged Republican-led states to take up mid-decade redistricting to try to help the GOP retain control of the House in 2026.

The approved map gives Democrats a much stronger chance to flip a seat in a state that last had a Democrat in Congress in early 2021.

Emma Petty Addams, co-executive director of Mormon Women for Ethical Government, another plaintiff in the lawsuit, said in a statement Friday that “the courts have provided an important check on the Legislature, affirming the people’s constitutional right to alter and reform their government.”

The ruling comes weeks before the deadline to file for reelection.

There is another appeal pending in federal court that was spearheaded by two of the state’s Republican members of Congress. The lawsuit filed in February argues the state judge violated the U.S. Constitution by rejecting the congressional districts drawn by the Republican-led state Legislature.