Judge rules Utah’s congressional map must be redrawn for the 2026 elections
SALT Lake CITY (AP) -Tah Legislative Assembly, on Monday, will need to rapidly re-decide the state’s congress limits after the decisions that survived the measures made by voters to ensure that the Republican controlled organization does not support any party.
The existing map adopted in 2021 is divided Salt Lake County – Between Utah’s population center and a democratic castle – between the four congress regions of the state, all of the Republicans have chosen the republicans with wide margins.
Dianna Gibson, the judge of the Regional Court, decided very little about the content of the map, but MPs weakened a independent commission determined by voters to prevent Partizan Gerrymandering and declared illegal for ignoring it.
“The nature of the violation lies in the refusal to respect the legislature’s power to use the forces of the law and to honor the right to reform people’s governments,” Gibson said. He said.
For the 2026 midterm elections, new maps will need to be drawn quickly. Lieutenant Gov. Deidre Henderson asked the courts to take time for the process before the candidates started to apply in early January in November. However, the objections promised by Republican authorities can help them consume the time to delay adopting new maps by 2028.
Rediment War can change the balance at the congress
The decision creates uncertainty in a state that is thought to be a clean scan for the GOP while preparing to defend the subtle majority of the party in the US house. Nationally, the democrats need to clarify three seats next year to seize the control of the room. The chairman of the residence party tends to lose space in midterm exams as for President Donald Trump in 2018.
Trump urged several states led by the Republic to add gained seats for GOP. Inside TexasGov. A plan waiting for the approval of Greg Abbott includes five new zones to support Republicans. Ohio Republicans would already revise their maps to make their maps more partisan, and Indiana, Florida and Missouri could choose to make changes. Some Democratic States redistribution The arms race has only taken action to balance its GOP earnings in California Texas so far.
The US Supreme Court is unlikely to intervene, and the UTAH Supreme Court may be afraid to entertain the appeal of the decision on Monday after sending the case back to Gibson to decide.
The country’s Supreme Court in 2019, Partizan Gerrymandering’s claims of congress and legislative regions Apart from the observation of the federal courts And it should be decided by states.
Voting Rights Groups Celebrate Legal Victory
David Reymann, the lawyer of the voting advocates who challenged the map, called the “Havza Moment için for the sounds of Utah voters.
Reymann told reporters, “The legislature in this state is not king,” he said. “Today, the voice of the UTAH voters was approved by the Regional Court, who claims that the legislative council could not ignore that UTAH voters are carrying out uncomfortable.”
Utah legislative leaders did not immediately respond to the e -mail seeking comments about the decision.
In 2018, the voters narrowed a voting attempt that constitutes an independent redistribution commission to draw boundaries that the legislative body must consider for the legislative and congress regions. The MPs abolished the initiative in 2020 and replaced them with a law that turned the commission into a advisory board where they could choose to be elected to ignore the commission.
The following year, the deputies ignored the proposal of a congress map from the commission and drew one of them that carved Salt Lake County between the four heavy republican regions.
Partizan Gerrymandering, who preferred Republicans, filed a lawsuit against voting advocates. They also said that when the Legislative Assembly abolished and replaced the 2018 initiative, they violated the rights of voters.
The case went to the Utah Supreme Court, which decided that the legislative council could not change the laws approved by voting compasses, except for strengthening them. Five -member panel He sent the case back to Gibson in the lower court To decide whether they need to redraw the boundaries set as part of the deputies. redistribution The process that takes place every 10 years.
MPs and voters clashes about redistribution
The decision is Monday, the voter -approved redditation standards, where deputies are overthrown.
Utah was one of the four states in which voters approved measures designed to reduce Partizan Gerrymandering in 2018. As in Utah, Missouri’s Republican legislature quickly tried to repel the key provisions. Missouri voters approved the revisions of the legislature in 2020 before the use of the original plan. The independent commissions approved by Colorado and Michigan voters remained in place and were used after the 2020 census.
Redimidation measures are not the only example of state deputies change voter approved measures.
Earlier this year, Missouri deputies abolished a paid illness permission law adopted by voters and said that the abortion rights change in the ballot would enter into force in a proposed way. In South Dakota, voters approved a public campaign financial system, tightened the laws of lobby, and in 2016, an ethical commission. The MPs abolished and changed the next year with more loose limits of lobbying gifts to a narrower government surveillance committee and public officials.
