SALT LAKE CITY — A tie-breaker vote in a powerful committee has signed the Utah State Legislature on to support a lawsuit that seeks to block the new congressional map from being implemented.
"I believe it’s in the legislature’s best interest to file an amicus brief," Senate President J. Stuart Adams, R-Layton, said in Wednesday's meeting of the Legislative Management Committee.
The "friend of the court" brief would support a lawsuit filed by Congressional representatives Celeste Maloy and Burgess Owens, county commissioners and other Utah political leaders against Lt. Governor Deidre Henderson. It seeks to block her from instituting the new map put in place by a state court judge, who sided with the League of Women Voters of Utah and Mormon Women for Ethical Government. The two voter-rights groups sued alleging the Utah legislature improperly overrode Prop. 4, the citizen ballot initiative for independent redistricting and passed their own map that constituted gerrymandering to favor Republicans in Congress.
Democrats on the panel objected to the amicus filing, calling it a waste of taxpayer dollars. But they also acknowledged the reality of their situation.
"I don’t want to belabor the record here today," Rep. Doug Owens, D-Millcreek, said, adding: "I can count the votes."
The panel voted 8-8 in support of filing the amicus brief. But under the rules, the House Speaker and Senate President can cast a tiebreaker vote.
So they did.
"I think it’s important on behalf of the legislature for us to file an amicus brief with the federal courts, just to state the legislature’s position on this important issue facing our state," House Speaker Mike Schultz, R-Hooper, told FOX 13 News afterward.
House Minority Leader Angela Romero, D-Salt Lake City, said not everyone in the legislature supports the move.
"The people spoke when we passed Prop. 4," she told FOX 13 News. "We went through this process over and over again, and I feel like my colleagues aren’t happy because they aren’t getting their way."
A hearing is scheduled next week in the federal lawsuit on an injunction request to block the new map from being implemented. An appeal in the original lawsuit is still before the Utah Supreme Court.
