SALT LAKE CITY — The Utah Supreme Court has rejected the legislature's appeal to halt the new congressional map from being implemented.
A panel comprised of Chief Justice Matthew Durrant, Associate Chief Justice Jill Pohlman and Justice Paige Petersen declined to hear a stay as other matters were still being litigated in a lower court.
"Here, no claim has been certified as final. Thus, certification under rule 54(b) is improper and we lack jurisdiction over Legislative Defendants’ appeal," they wrote.
"Accordingly, we grant Plaintiffs’ Motion for Summary Disposition and dismiss Legislative Defendants’ appeal. Also before us are Defendants’ Motion for Stay, which requests a stay of the district court’s injunction of the 2021 Congressional Map during the pendency of this appeal; and the Utah County Clerk’s Motion for Joinder in this appeal. Because we dismiss the appeal for lack of jurisdiction, we dismiss both motions as moot."
The ruling is a blow for the legislature, which has repeatedly sought to block the map from going into effect.
The League of Women Voters of Utah and Mormon Women for Ethical Government sued the legislature over Prop. 4, accusing them of overriding the will of the people who passed the citizen ballot initiative for independent redistricting and instituting a map for congressional boundaries that constituted illegal gerrymandering to favor Republicans.
A judge sided with them, ordered the legislature to draw a new map, then rejected it for not abiding by the tenets of Prop. 4 and chose a map submitted by the League and MWEG. The legislature had appealed to the Utah Supreme Court seeking a stay to halt the new map, which creates a Salt Lake County-centric district that is more competitive and Democrats have rushed to run in.
Read the ruling here:
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