Yesterday was a good day in Utah. We'll see what happens.
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Last night, a judge threw out the gerrymandered maps that the legislators created in 2021 and said "come back with new ones in 30 days. These boundaries will NOT be used in 2026."
For those interested in the original thread from 2021 which explains it. I searched and found it. https://vivalazone.org/other-stuff/gerrymander-us-grrrr
This story is from Marc Elias' "Democracy Docket" https://www.democracydocket.com/news-alerts/utah-strikes-down-gerrymande...
*****
In a landmark victory for voters, a Utah judge struck down the state Legislature’s gerrymandered congressional map and reinstated the citizen-led redistricting reforms voters approved in 2018.
Judge Dianna Gibson ruled Monday that the Utah Legislature’s repeal of Proposition 4 — the voter-approved independent redistricting commission and anti-gerrymandering law — was unconstitutional.
“Proposition 4 is the law in Utah on redistricting. H.B. 2004, the 2021 Congressional Map, which was not enacted under S.B. 200 and not Proposition 4, cannot lawfully govern future elections in Utah,” Gibson wrote. “Use of H.B. 2004, the 2021 Congressional Map, in any future elections is hereby ENJOINED.”
The ruling permanently blocks use of the GOP-drawn 2021 congressional map that split Salt Lake County into four districts, diluting the power of non-Republican voters.
“The Legislature intentionally stripped away all of Proposition 4’s core redistricting standards and procedures that were mandatory and binding on it,” Gibson added. “To permit the 2021 Congressional Plan to remain in place would reward the very constitutional violation this Court has already identified and would nullify the people’s 2018 redistricting reform.”
The court ordered lawmakers to redraw Utah’s congressional districts under the rules of Proposition 4. They have until September 24 to deliver a compliant plan.
If they fail — or if the new map doesn’t meet the law’s standards — plaintiffs and other groups may submit their own maps for the court to consider.
An evidentiary hearing on the new maps is set for October, keeping the process on track for fairer elections in 2026.
This ruling is a resounding win for the pro-voting plaintiffs who have spent years battling partisan gerrymandering. More broadly, it is a victory for Utah voters who demanded fair maps at the ballot box in 2018.
By restoring Proposition 4 and blocking the gerrymandered map, the court reaffirmed that the people — not politicians — have the final word on how they are represented.
*****
We did have some fun with it. The Mayor of Millcreek bragged his city had more congressional representation than most states - 4 Representatives and 2 Senators! He produced a pin.
And when I did a march to publicize a statewide relief program for seniors, we walked it so we could say we walked in every congressional district in the state!
I guess the bumper sticker I made is now a collector's item! LOL
Here's the detailed map where a 1.8 mile stretch of highway bordered every district. That intersection where the pic above was taken has 3 districts (green, tan, orange).
And what the gerrymandered state map looked like to take away the voice of the Democratic stronghold of Salt Lake County. Maybe now we can get a Demo in congress to stand up for environmental protections.
Living in Salt Lake City, I'm in the green district 2 (by where all those colored dots are), so I vote with southern Utahns 300 miles away. Folks by Zion National Park vote with us in SLC. We're represented by Ammon Bundy's cousin Celeste Maloy, who lives 250 miles away in a county south of that number 2.
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Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: treat island
Congratulations to Utah! Real
Congratulations to Utah! Real representation is possible!
Your bumper sticker is clever and now archivable.
Good work, Slickrock and other people in Utah who care.
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: MarkD
Our wins have been few and
Our wins have been few and far between lately so this is very positive news. Good job your honor.
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: Alan R
^Yeah -- same. Thankfully,
^Yeah -- same. Thankfully, there are some sane people in Utah besides Slickrock.
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: Alan R
^Yeah -- same. Thankfully,
.
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: BraMance
Excellence
Excellence
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: donster
Encouraging Slick .... thanks
Encouraging Slick .... thanks for the info
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: intentionally blank
> Judge Dianna Gibson ruled
> Judge Dianna Gibson ruled Monday
This is good news, but I have to wonder how long it will take Trump to come after Gibson for judicial activism.
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: Lord Kalvert
Iceberg ? a real grease
Iceberg ? a real grease pit.
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: Strangha
Great shakes, Klondike, and a
Great shakes, Klondike, and a recognizable landmark. Three districts at that corner intersection. And they had a table to stand on!
Here's our local good reporter on the issue. https://www.fox13now.com/news/politics/after-utah-redistricting-ruling-a...
Mike, the state folks have already started. Here's the story in today's SL Tribune.
Utah judge faces GOP backlash after ordering Legislature to redraw congressional maps
One state senator insinuated Judge Dianna Gibson may be removed from the bench.
By Robert Gehrke
| Aug. 26, 2025, 3:39 p.m.
Within hours of striking down Utah’s congressional maps and directing the Legislature to draw new ones, Judge Dianna Gibson was already taking heat, with lawmakers clamoring to hold her accountable for her “judicial activism,” including an insinuation she could be removed from the bench.
In a blow to the Legislature, Gibson ruled Monday evening that citizens had a constitutional right to put constraints on the redistricting process, which they did when they passed the 2018 Better Boundaries initiative. The Legislature violated that right, she wrote, when it repealed those limitations, ignored maps drawn by an independent redistricting commission and adopted its own maps.
Those new boundaries split Democrat-leaning areas of Salt Lake County into four separate congressional districts and created safe seats for Republican House members.
“Judge Gibson took 76 single spaced pages to justify ignoring plain language of the Utah Constitution,” Sen. Daniel McCay wrote on X Monday night. “Could Judge Gibson be the first judicial removal for ignoring the Utah Constitution that she took an oath to uphold?”
Judge Gibson took 76 single spaced pages to justify ignoring plain language of the Utah Constitution.
Could Judge Gibson be the first judicial removal for ignoring the Utah Constitution that she took an oath to uphold? https://t.co/76PIgfUwf7 pic.twitter.com/1dZsVLcnwb
— Daniel McCay (@danmccay) August 26, 2025
McCay attached an image of Article IX, Section 1 of the Utah Constitution that states that after receiving Census figures, “the Legislature shall divide the state into congressional, legislative, and other districts accordingly.”
Attorneys for the Legislature argued the provision gives the Legislature sole power to draw political boundaries.
Gibson addressed that contention, writing at considerable length that, while the Legislature does conduct redistricting, the constitutional provision McCay referenced was added to the Constitution in 2008 to establish when redistricting should occur and that it actually limits the Legislature’s authority.
Nothing in the provision, she wrote, gives the Legislature the sole authority to redistrict, nor does it exclude the public from exercising its “co-equal legislative power” guaranteed in the Utah Constitution — a power exercised when voters passed Proposition 4. That 2018 ballot initiative-turned law creates standards for the Legislature to abide by when redistricting, including banning partisan gerrymandering.
“Neither the U.S. Constitution nor the Utah Constitution grants sole and exclusive authority over redistricting to the Legislature. … The people have the fundamental constitution[al] right and authority to propose redistricting legislation that is binding on the Legislature,” she wrote.
She gave legislators 30 days to draw new maps.
“You’ve got a citizen Legislature and the judge said, ‘either you do this in 30 days or I will do it for you.’ I do not see that in the Constitution,” McCay said in an interview.
More broadly, McCay said he’s heard from several colleagues who have “concerns that the judiciary feels it is entitled at the moment,” given some of its recent decisions.
“I don’t know that this necessarily warrants removal, but I do think there needs to be this conversation about where are we going and what is the court’s purpose here,” he said. “Where are they trying to lead us, because clearly, they are the ones making the policy. It’s not the Legislature.”
McCay was not the only Republican blasting Gibson’s ruling.
State Republican Party Chair Rob Axson called it “Judicial activism in action.” U.S. Sen. Mike Lee on X called it “a judicial takeover of the political process — one designed by leftists to advance the electoral prospects of the Democratic Party.” And state Sen. John Johnson, R-North Ogden, called it “judicial legislation” and “an abuse of power.”
“Utah will not be governed by judicial fiat,” Johnson wrote on social media. “If [judges] persist in substituting personal preference for constitutional principle, then the Legislature has not only the right but the duty to hold them accountable.”
Gibson was nominated by Republican Gov. Gary Herbert in October 2018, received a unanimous vote by the Senate Judicial Confirmation Committee and was confirmed unanimously by the full Senate. She was a finalist for a vacancy on the Utah Supreme Court in 2022.
She was vetted and recommended for both nominations by a nominating commission made up of members appointed by the governor.
The Judicial Performance Evaluation Commission voted unanimously in 2022 that she should be retained, and 75% of voters were in favor of keeping her on the bench. She will next be up for retention in 2028.
Democratic Sen. Nate Blouin, D-Millcreek, said in an interview that GOP lawmakers’ talk of impeaching judges who rule against them “is par for the course at this point for Republicans in this state. … When they don’t get their way, they’re going to press every single lever they have.”
“I think that’s totally inappropriate and just so wild that these judges have come through a confirmation and appointment process that is entirely controlled by Republicans and they’re still accusing them of being liberal activist judges,” Blouin said.
More broadly, a series of court rulings stopping key parts of the supermajority Republican agenda — like blocking a law that outlawed almost all abortions, preventing a ban on transgender girls playing high school sports, keeping the Legislature from repealing Proposition 4, voiding a constitutional amendment seeking to overturn the Proposition 4 ruling — have sparked a backlash, prompting a wide-ranging effort from legislators to exert more control over the judiciary.
Lawmakers have discussed adding justices to the Utah Supreme Court and having judges elected. They proposed letting the Legislature recommend whether specific judges should be retained or not and requiring judges to get a supermajority to win retention.
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: jazfish
Thanks , Slick.
Thanks , Slick.
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: Strangha
Hearing today in court. After
Hearing today in court. After getting resistance about the fast timeline, which was expected, a lawyer for the people responded.
Plaintiff's lawyer doesn't have an issue with the 30-day timeline, saying it's "more time than the legislature took to enact its map in 2021."
Mic drop.
Judge also responded to the charges by legislators this was judicial overreach.
"This court is not drawing a map. It is the legislature's responsibility" Judge Gibson told lawyers for both sides on Friday. "This court recognizes the separation of powers... I just want to be clear about that."
https://www.fox13now.com/news/politics/judge-looks-at-timelines-for-utah...
Yes, it's a FOX news link, but he's one of our best reporters. That FOX station is NOT like the national one.
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: intentionally blank
> lawmakers clamoring to hold
> lawmakers clamoring to hold her accountable for her “judicial activism,”
> charges by legislators this was judicial overreach
And of course the irony is that those same legislators are likely big fans of the current US Supreme Court.
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: Strangha
The great Pat Bagley from The
The great Pat Bagley from The Salt Lake Tribune does it again...and again. What a great phrase to coin.
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: Strangha
Well, the lege showed some
Well, the lege showed some maps yesterday. Here's the story from one of Utah's best reporters on the hill. This FAUX affiliate is actually pretty good. Nothing like the national.
https://www.fox13now.com/news/politics/proposed-redistricting-maps-unvei...
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: fishcane
I keep waiting for this
I keep waiting for this thread to lineup with another thread and end up in the awesome adjacent HOF
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: Strangha
I mentioned our FAUX
I mentioned our FAUX afilliate is different. Here's one of their investigative reporters, Adam Herbets, doing great work.
This is from a group I financially support, The Utah Investigative Journalism Project. Former reporters untethered from the 2 major daily papers. They win journalism awards every year.
http://utahinvestigative.org/
*****
Two days before the 2024 legislative session ended, lawmakers passed SB240, a measure declaring that daily calendars of public officials are not considered government records.
Herbets requested dozens of records for public official's calendars, just hours before Governor Spencer Cox signed the bill into law.
Herbets requested records for the calendar belonging to former Attorney General Sean Reyes as well other government employees at state agencies, cities around the Wasatch Front and one charter school-- Vanguard Academy--that the Kingston polygamist group reportedly uses to educate its children.
Many agencies fought the release and the matter went to the State Records Committee. The committee ruled they needed to be released arguing that since the GRAMAs were filed hours before the new law went into effect, the records should be released under the old legal standard.
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: Strangha
The Democrats on the
The Democrats on the committee (all 2 of them!) presented an option. It was not well-received.
https://www.fox13now.com/news/politics/tempers-flare-at-utah-legislature...
This is how the population in Utah is concentrated in SL County, which is why the repubs split it up so we'd never have a Demo rep in Congress.
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: Strangha
Comments open on the proposed
Comments now open to Utahns on the proposed maps. Six to comment on. No time to suggest revisions or alterations. Just pick one, dammit!
I'm wondering - if the repubs split their votes on the 5 maps proposed by the repub consultant, and Demos all go for their single proposal, that could bode well for the Demos.
Here's the Demo proposal. https://citygate.utleg.gov/legdistricting/comments/plan/249/12 I'm amazed at the population equality.
Looks like judges have questioned the work of the guy the repubs hired.
https://www.ksl.com/article/51381298/judges-criticized-past-analysis-by-...
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: Strangha
Redistricting Committee voted
Redistricting Committee voted today to approve a map favorable to repubs! What a SHOCK!
Of course the committee co-chairs had no idea about the e-mail the party sent out asking repubs to support map 3.
**** When asked whether the Republican Party’s support of map C influenced the Legislative Redistricting Committee’s selection, Sandall indicated he wasn’t aware of the party’s preference.
“Did the Republican party do that? Because quite honestly I’ve been shielded by all of that,” Sandall said.
The committee’s House co-chair, Rep. Candice Pierucci, R-Herriman, said it didn’t.
“I mean, we can’t control what happens in public comment, but I haven’t read that email. I’ve been asked that question over the past couple of days, but no,” she said, adding that while the party is “entitled to sharing their opinion, that didn’t come into consideration at all.” ****
Uh-huh.
Now they're not only choosing a map, but amending the process for redistricting by the legislature. Solidifying their power.
Next, as of now - The lege will approve all this shit today. After approval and the guv's signature, it's off to the judge.
***** Map C would be more competitive for Democrats compared to the 2021 map — but would still result in four congressional districts that would lean in favor of the deep red state’s dominant party, the GOP.
Gibson is expected to ultimately pick a replacement map — either the Legislature’s preferred map or the plaintiffs’ — by her deadline of Nov. 10 in order for it to be put in place in time for the 2026 elections.
However, one of the Legislative Redistricting Committee’s co-chairs, Sen. Scott Sandall, R-Tremonton, told reporters if Gibson rejects map C and picks a map not drawn by lawmakers and instead drawn by plaintiffs, the Legislature will likely fight that decision in court as they continue to appeal Gibson’s earlier ruling before the Utah Supreme Court and potentially the U.S. Supreme Court.
“To be in compliance, to me, with code and the Constitution, the judge only has one option,” Sandall said, though he added she could “either accept this map or come back to the Legislature and say you failed … and you’ve got to develop a map that takes that into account. To me, it’s the Legislature’s responsibility, constitutionally, to do this.” *****
Funny they're way into the state constitution, except the part where it says "That the people inhabiting said proposed State do agree and declare that they forever disclaim all right and title to the unappropriated public lands lying within the boundaries thereof ." They want those federal lands, but promised they'd never ask.
Still splitting urban and rural and voting with people 100's of miles away.
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: Strangha
Here's the latest...from one
Here's the latest...from one of Utah's best news sources. https://utahnewsdispatch.com/2025/10/07/anti-gerrymandering-plaintiffs-a...
The League of Women Voters of Utah, Mormon Women for Ethical Government and several individual plaintiffs, have sued the legislature over the new law they passed Monday regarding redistricting rules - and - proposed two new maps the judge is allowed to consider alongside the map approved by the "Utah Taliban."
This is from the church-owned TV station...
The plaintiffs also submitted a pair of proposed maps to the court for consideration alongside the map approved by lawmakers on Monday, saying the Legislature's map "fails to abide by and conform to Proposition 4's requirements."
Map 1 was selected from an ensemble of 10,000 computer-generated maps designed to comply with the priorities of Proposition 4, according to a court filing. Map 2, meanwhile, is derived from Option C adopted by the Legislature, with changes "correcting the enacted map's failure" to follow Proposition 4 standards, plaintiffs state.
"In particular, it corrects the enacted map's failure to minimize municipal and county splits to the greatest extent practicable and the enacted map's failure to comply with Proposition 4's prohibition against purposefully or unduly favoring or disfavoring political parties," the court filing states.
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: MarkD
Good luck. But much like Cali
Good luck. But much like Cali(the big money adds will doom the re-alignment here) and elsewhere, they have control and aren't letting go. I'm afraid our "democracy" is toast.
Glad I'm 71 and not 21....... well sorta.
Top of Page Bottom of Page PermalinkFull Name: Strangha
Great news. The judge threw
Great news. The judge threw out the legislature's map again and struck down the new law the legislature passed re: redistricting as part of their temper tantrum.
She could have chosen from the new map the lege drew in special session or from two maps submitted by the plaintiffs.
She chose one of the plaintiffs maps, which will give SL County a solidly democratic district. SL County voted 53% Kamala and 43% for the felon last November.
So in 2026, we should have one less republican and one more democrat in the House.
The story https://utahnewsdispatch.com/2025/11/11/utah-redistricting-ruling-utah-j...
BUT
The win is temporary, maybe only one voting cycle. There's a new effort to do a proposition in 2026, this time by the conservative republicans, to override the previous prop 4 that established the redistricting committee. The previous one passed with only 50.34% of the vote in favor and 49.66% against, so I wouldn't be surprised to see them be successful and end the idea of a non-partisan commission and solidify the power of drawing new maps to the legislators. The decision wasn't yet an hour old when a legislator said he has opened a bill to file articles of impeachment against Judge Gibson for gross abuse of power.
And the other messed up part, it looks like our former one-term congressman Ben McAdams, a so called "Blue dog democrat," is going to run. While he might have been a decent candidate with the old district make up, in this new district, we could elect an actual strong Democrat! The only reason he barely squeaked by Mia Love (by 694 votes, or .257%) was because the redistricting prop 4, Medicaid expansion, and medical marijuana were on the ballot, bringing out tons of more liberal voters. Without those things on the ballot, he lost to Fox News idiot Burgess Owens by 3.000 votes.
So we can enjoy this today but come 2028, the districts will be more republican again.
The new map: