'Misguided!' Utah Republicans vow to defy court's gerrymandering ruling

A state judge found Utah's congressional map is an illegal partisan gerrymander and ordered lawmakers to redraw the map in a way that would almost certainly have to include a Democratic-favoring district in Salt Lake City. But GOP leaders in the legislature have vowed to just redraw another gerrymander that still includes zero Democratic districts, reported Patrick Svitek of The Washington Post.

"Despite a misguided court ruling and an arbitrary 30-day deadline, the Utah Legislature will defend its constitutional authority and move forward with redrawing the state's congressional map," said Utah House Speaker Mike Schultz and Senate President J. Stuart Adams in a joint statement. "The court's order unconstitutionally ties the Legislature's hands by mandating certain redistricting criteria when the U.S. and Utah constitutions leave it to the people's representatives in the legislature to redistrict."

In reality, voters already passed a ballot referendum in 2018 requiring fair redistricting criteria, but the legislature simply chose to ignore the law's requirements.

"We can and will continue to pursue the same goal we have had from the outset for each member of Congress to represent both urban and rural voices," the statement continued. "This model provides a true statewide perspective, ensuring that all Utahns —whether they live in rural towns, suburban neighborhoods or our capital city — have four strong voices in Washington, D.C." (Utah is one of the least rural states in the country, with 90 percent of residents living in cities.)

This would not be the first time that state lawmakers tried to defy court orders to draw a fair congressional map.

Most recently, when a federal court ruled Alabama's Republican congressional gerrymander violated racial representation rules under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, lawmakers drew a new map that did not contain a second majority-Black district as required, prompting the court to order an outside expert to draw the map for them.

President Donald Trump, who urged Republican states to redraw as many congressional maps as possible to eliminate Democratic districts, raged against the Utah map's strikedown earlier this week, writing on Truth Social, "Monday’s Court Order in Utah is absolutely Unconstitutional. How did such a wonderful Republican State like Utah, which I won in every Election, end up with so many Radical Left Judges?"