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Two Republican members of Congress sued Utah’s prime election official on Monday, searching for to dam a court-ordered congressional map they argue was unlawfully imposed by a decide and tilts the state’s Home delegation in favor of Democrats.
Reps. Celeste Maloy and Burgess Owens, R-Utah, together with a number of different elected officers together with county commissioners, filed a 31-page federal lawsuit difficult a redistricting plan often known as “Map 1.”
The plaintiffs argue the map violates the U.S. Structure’s Elections Clause by bypassing the state legislature, which they are saying holds unique authority to attract congressional districts.
In addition they contend that Choose Dianna Gibson violated the Structure by rejecting congressional maps drawn by the Utah Legislature and imposing “Map 1,” a redistricting plan drafted by attorneys and specialists for advocacy teams.
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Rep. Burgess Owens, R-Utah, speaks throughout a panel dialogue on the Conservative Political Motion Convention in Orlando, Florida, on Feb. 27, 2021. (Octavio Jones/Reuters)
The plaintiffs mentioned the redistricting plan had “by no means been launched, debated, or voted upon by a single member of the Utah Home or Senate.”
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“Map 1 was as an alternative drafted by attorneys and skilled witnesses for the League of Girls Voters and Mormon Women for Moral Authorities, personal activist organizations that possess no lawmaking energy below both the USA or Utah Constitutions,” the lawsuit reads partly.
The plaintiffs are asking the court docket to convene a three-judge panel, invalidate “Map 1,” and completely block its implementation, a transfer that may stop its use within the 2026 elections.
Rep. Celeste Maloy, R-Utah, speaks throughout a information convention within the Capitol Customer Heart following a gathering of the Home Republican Convention on Tuesday, March 11, 2025. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Name, Inc through Getty Photographs)
They’re additionally searching for to return redistricting authority to the Utah Legislature and, if lawmakers don’t enact a brand new map, reinstate the state’s 2021 congressional districts.
Republicans at the moment management all 4 of Utah’s seats within the U.S. Home below district strains accredited by lawmakers following the 2020 census, in line with The Associated Press.
The AP reported that Gibson discovered these districts ran afoul of voter-approved anti-gerrymandering requirements and changed them with a brand new map that largely retains Salt Lake County, a Democratic stronghold, intact inside a single district relatively than dividing it amongst all 4.
“This lawsuit shouldn’t be an effort to regulate political outcomes. It isn’t an try and benefit one social gathering or drawback one other,” Maloy, Owens, and the opposite plaintiffs wrote in an op-ed for Deseret Information. “It isn’t a referendum on whether or not districts ought to be aggressive or compact or on how political steadiness must be measured. These debates belong within the Legislature, the place proposals could be launched publicly, amended overtly and resolved by representatives accountable to voters.”
Flags fly on the Utah State Capitol in Salt Lake Metropolis on Jan. 18, 2026. (Sydney Schaefer/AP)
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“We filed this federal lawsuit not as a result of it was simple however as a result of it was vital. We search no particular therapy. We ask solely that the U.S. Structure be adopted, that the Legislature be allowed to satisfy its lawful function below the federal Structure and that Utahns retain their proper to decide on representatives by means of a course of that’s professional and accountable,” they added. “That’s not radical. It’s foundational. And it’s value defending.”
