Finally some fairness in redistricting fight. In Utah, a judge stands up for voters
- Share via
- GOP lawmakers ignored a voter-created commission and gerrymandered the state.
- A judge ordered new maps that could tip a Utah congressional seat toward Democrats.
It’s been more than 60 years since Utah backed a Democrat for president. The state’s last Democratic U.S. senator left office nearly half a century ago and the last Utah Democrat to serve in the House lost his seat in 2020.
But, improbably enough, Utah has suddenly emerged as a rare Democratic bright spot in the red-vs.-blue redistricting wars.
Late last month, a judge tossed out the state’s slanted congressional lines and ordered Utah’s GOP-run Legislature to draw a new political map, ruling that lawmakers improperly thumbed their noses and overrode voters who created an independent redistricting commission to end gerrymandering.
It’s a welcome pushback against the growing pattern of lawmakers arrogantly ignoring voters and pursuing their preferred agenda. You don’t have to be a partisan to think that elections should matter and when voters express their will it should be honored.
Otherwise, what’s the point of holding elections?
Anyhow, redistricting. Did you ever dream you’d spend this much time thinking about the subject? Typically, it’s an arcane and extremely nerdy process that occurs once a decade, after the census, and mainly draws attention from a small priesthood of line-drawing experts and political obsessives.
Suddenly, everyone is fixated on congressional boundaries, for which we can thank our voraciously self-absorbed president.
Democratic consultant Jim Ross and his Republican consultant brother, Tom, say their affection and mutual regard is something no campaign can ever sunder — even in these contentious times.
Trump started the whole sorry gerrymandering business — voters and democracy be damned — by browbeating Texas into redrawing its congressional map to try to nab Republicans as many as five additional House seats in 2026. The paranoid president is looking to bolster his party ahead of a tough midterm election, when Democrats need to gain just three seats to win a House majority and attain some measure of control over Trump’s rogue regime.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom responded to Texas with a proposed Democratic gerrymander and perhaps you’re thinking, well, what about his attempted power grab? While your friendly columnist has deplored efforts to end-run the state’s voter-established redistricting commission, at least the matter is going on the ballot in a Nov. 4 special election, allowing the people to decide.
Meantime, the political race to the bottom continues.
Lawmakers in Republican-run Florida, Indiana, Missouri and Ohio may tear up their congressional maps in favor of partisan gerrymanders, and Democrats in Illinois and New York are being urged to do the same.
When all is said and done, 10 or so additional seats could be locked up by one party or the other, even before a single ballot is cast; this when the competitive congressional map nationwide has already shrunk to a postage stamp-sized historic low.
If you think that sort of pre-baked election and voter obsolescence is a good thing, you might consider switching your registration to Russia or China.
Utah, at least, offers a small ray of positivity.
In 2018, voters there narrowly approved Proposition 4, taking the map-drawing process away from self-interested lawmakers and creating an independent commission to handle redistricting. In 2021, the Republican-run Legislature chose to ignore voters, gutting the commission and passing a congressional map that allowed the GOP to easily win all four of Utah’s House seats.
The trick was slicing and dicing Democratic-leaning Salt Lake County, the state’s most populous and densely packed, and scattering its voters among four predominantly Republican districts.
“There’s always going to be someone who disagrees,” Carson Jorgensen, the chairman of the Utah Republican Party, said airily as lawmakers prepared to give voters their middle finger.
In July 2024, Utah’s five Supreme Court justices — all Republican appointees — found that the Legislature’s repeal and replacement of Proposition 4 was unconstitutional. The ruling kicked the case over to Salt Lake County District Judge Dianna Gibson, who on Aug. 25 rejected the partisan maps drawn by GOP lawmakers.
Cue the predictable outrage.
“Monday’s Court Order in Utah is absolutely Unconstitutional,” Trump bleated on social media. “How did such a wonderful Republican State like Utah, which I won in every Election, end up with so many Radical Left Judges?”
In Gibson’s case, the answer is her appointment by Gov. Gary R. Herbert, a Republican who would be considered a radical leftist in the same way a hot fudge sundae could be described as diet food.
Barabak: They worked hard to draw fair political maps. How do they feel about Newsom undoing them?
Members of the California Citizens Redistricting Commission, created by voters to leash politicians, are divided over Democrats’ gerrymandering effort. But they’re uniformly proud of their work.
Others offered the usual condemnation of “judicial activism,” which is political-speak for whenever a court decision doesn’t go your way.
“It’s a terrible day ... for the rule of law,” lamented Utah’s Republican Sen. Mike Lee, who is apparently concerned with legal proprieties only insofar as they serve his party’s president and the GOP, having schemed with Trump allies in their failed attempt to overturn the 2020 election.
In a ruling last week rejecting lawmakers’ request to pause her decision, Gibson wrote that “Utah has an opportunity to be different.”
“While other states are currently redrawing their congressional maps to intentionally render some citizen votes meaningless, Utah could redesign its congressional plan with the intention to protect its citizens’ right to vote and to ensure that each citizen’s vote is meaningful.”
That’s true. Utah can not only be different from other states, as Gibson suggested.
It can be better.
Insights
L.A. Times Insights delivers AI-generated analysis on Voices content to offer all points of view. Insights does not appear on any news articles.
Viewpoint
Perspectives
The following AI-generated content is powered by Perplexity. The Los Angeles Times editorial staff does not create or edit the content.
Ideas expressed in the piece
Judge Dianna Gibson’s ruling represents a necessary defense of voter rights and democratic principles, rejecting partisan maps that allowed Republicans to easily win all four of Utah’s House seats by slicing Democratic-leaning Salt Lake County among four predominantly Republican districts. The decision upholds Proposition 4, which voters narrowly approved in 2018 to create an independent redistricting commission and take map-drawing power away from self-interested lawmakers[1][4].
The redistricting battle exemplifies a broader pattern of lawmakers arrogantly ignoring voter will, making this judicial intervention essential for preserving electoral integrity. When voters express their preferences through ballot initiatives, their decisions should be honored rather than gutted by legislators pursuing their own political agenda[2].
Utah has an opportunity to distinguish itself positively from other states engaging in partisan gerrymandering wars, as Gibson noted in her ruling that “Utah could redesign its congressional plan with the intention to protect its citizens’ right to vote and to ensure that each citizen’s vote is meaningful”[4]. This represents a chance for the state to prioritize fair representation over political advantage[5].
The Utah Supreme Court’s earlier finding that the Legislature’s repeal and replacement of Proposition 4 was unconstitutional provides legal foundation for requiring new maps, demonstrating that even Republican-appointed justices recognize the impropriety of legislative overreach in this case[4][5].
Different views on the topic
Republican legislative leaders maintain they have sole constitutional authority to set redistricting boundaries and argue the court order “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”[3]. They contend their approach ensures each member of Congress represents both urban and rural voices, providing “a true statewide perspective” for all Utahns[3].
Utah Legislature officials criticize the rushed 30-day timeline imposed by the court, arguing it prevents meaningful public involvement compared to their previous process of spending nearly six months traveling the state and holding more than 20 public meetings to gather input[3]. They describe the timeline as “not only unreasonable” but “fundamentally unfair to Utahns” and plan to pursue all legal options including requesting a stay from the Utah Supreme Court[3][4].
The legislature argues it faces an impossible choice between having new congressional maps in place or “new congressional maps resulting from a process that follows all of Proposition 4” within the compressed timeframe, claiming this “inflicts a grave separation-of-powers injury on the Legislature”[4]. They maintain that the district court’s order forces them to participate in remedial proceedings while expressly reserving rights to further appellate review[1].
Republican officials suggest using appeals to potentially delay adopting new maps until 2028 by running out the clock before the candidate filing deadline in early January, viewing the current legal challenge as overreach that disregards what they consider the proper constitutional process for redistricting[5].
More From the Los Angeles Times
Podcasts
About 2 in 3 fire survivors are still displaced and, as coverage for temporary housing disappears, that number could get increase.
In 2012, the judge presiding over Orange County’s worst mass-shooter case gave a seemingly simple order. He told the Sheriff’s Department to reveal information about a mysterious jailhouse informant.
Modern LA earned its first smoggy nickname 450 years ago, as the “bay of smokes.” At the La Brea tar pits, we take a short walk through a long history with curator Regan Dunn, who explains how and why the first Angelenos would have set fires that filled the broad bowl of LA and foretold the curse of smog.
