Utah GOP Passes Gerrymandered Map, While Handcuffing Courts

Republicans in the Utah legislature passed a new gerrymandered map Monday that would help the party hold on to all four of the state’s congressional seats, if allowed to stand. 

They also passed a separate bill that’s designed to make it harder for courts to strike down the gerrymander. 

The new congressional map was passed as required by a recent court ruling, which ordered the legislature to draw a new, fair map that complies with Proposition 4, the state’s anti-gerrymandering law approved by voters in 2018.

According to an analysis of the map by The Salt Lake Tribune, Republicans will still have a competitive advantage in all four congressional districts, but a Democrat would have a better shot than in the current map in the new eastern district that includes Salt Lake City.

During the House debate, Rep. Jennifer Dailey-Provost sharply criticized the Republicans for choosing the only map that does not favor a Democrat in any district. She argued that Republicans on the state’s Redistricting Committee determined the “fairness” of the map not by tests required by Prop 4, but by the tests written into a “partisan bias” bill passed hours earlier. 

The bill, which was introduced by Sen. Brady Brammer (R), was framed as a check on partisan bias, but actually allows Utah Republicans to rig the process of determining whether or not a map is politically biased.

“If you’ve got garbage going in, you’re getting garbage coming out,” Dailey-Provost said of standards used to draw the map that the legislature ultimately passed. 

The map passed the House with three Republicans voting against it. The map now needs to be approved by the court as compliant with the parameters set by Prop 4 before it heads to the governor’s desk. 

But Brammer’s bill, which Gov. Spencer Cox (R) signed hours after it passed the legislature, could make it harder for a court to strike down the map on the grounds of partisan bias outlined in Prop 4.

Late Update, 7:30PM ET: Pro-voting plaintiffs challenging Utah’s current congressional map submitted two alternative maps to the court, arguing that the legislature’s newly approved GOP gerrymander still violates the voter-approved anti-gerrymandering law, Proposition 4. A judge will hear arguments and decide which map complies with the law by November.