salt lake city — The Utah Supreme Court on Friday rejected an appeal by Republican lawmakers, leaving a congressional map that gives Democrats a great chance of winning one of the state’s four Republican-controlled House seats in the fall.
In the order signed by Chief Justice Matthew P. Durant, the court explained that it did not have “jurisdiction over defendants’ legislative appeals.”
The deputies had appealed A Decision in November A Utah judge adopted a congressional map that creates a Democratic-leaning district above a district poised to protect all four U.S. House seats in the state held by Republicans.
The map keeps Salt Lake County Almost entirely within one district, rather than dividing the densely Democratic population center between the four districts, as was previously the case.
Republicans argued that the court did not have the legal authority to enact a map that had not been approved by the Legislature.
Utah’s Republican Senate President Stuart Adams backed away from the ruling, saying that “the chaos continues.”
“We will continue to advocate for a process that respects the Constitution and ensures that the votes of Utah voters are respected across our state,” he said in a statement.
Katherine Bailey, president of the League of Women Voters of Utah, one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit, praised the ruling.
“We are encouraged that the court dismissed this inappropriate appeal and allowed the process to move forward without disruption to voters or election officials,” she said in a statement.
The redistricting process stems from an August decision in which Judge Diana Gibson ruled Hit the congressional map of Utah It was adopted after the 2020 Census because the Legislature circumvented anti-gerrymandering standards passed by voters.
The ruling thrust the state into a national redistricting battle, with President Donald Trump urging Republican-led states to participate Redistricting in the middle of the decade To try to help the GOP retain control of the House in 2026.
The approved map gives Democrats a much stronger chance of flipping their seat in a state where a Democrat was last in Congress in early 2021.
“The courts have provided an important check on the Legislature, affirming the constitutional right of the people to change and reform their government,” Emma Betty Adams, co-executive director of Mormon Women for Ethical Government, another plaintiff in the lawsuit, said in a statement Friday.
The ruling comes weeks before the deadline for filing for re-election.
There is another An appeal is pending in federal court Led by two of the state’s Republican congressmen. The lawsuit filed in February says a state judge violated the U.S. Constitution by rejecting congressional districts drawn by the Republican-led state Legislature.