Utah Supreme Court Lets Court‑Drawn U.S. House Map Stand

The Utah Supreme Court has rejected an appeal by Republican legislative leaders and left in place a court‑drawn congressional map that for the first time creates a clear Democratic‑leaning U.S. House district centered on Salt Lake County. In an order signed by Chief Justice Matthew B. Durrant, the court said it lacked jurisdiction over lawmakers’ challenge to a November 2025 ruling in which Judge Dianna Gibson struck down the Legislature’s post‑2020 map for circumventing voter‑approved anti‑gerrymandering standards and adopted an alternative plan. The new map keeps heavily Democratic Salt Lake County largely intact within one district instead of splitting it four ways, giving Democrats a realistic chance to flip one of Utah’s four currently Republican‑held seats in 2026; the state has not sent a Democrat to Congress since early 2021. GOP Senate President Stuart Adams blasted the decision as continuing 'chaos' and vowed to keep defending legislative prerogatives, while plaintiffs including the League of Women Voters of Utah and Mormon Women for Ethical Government praised the ruling as an important check on lawmakers and a vindication of voters’ power to reform redistricting. The decision comes just weeks before candidate filing deadlines and against a national backdrop of Trump urging GOP‑run states to do mid‑decade redistricting to shore up House control; a separate federal appeal filed by two Utah Republican members of Congress over the same map is still pending.