Utah’s Proposition 4 was narrowly approved by voters in November 2018. It created a seven-member Independent Redistricting Commission to draw advisory congressional and state legislative maps after each census. Legislative leaders and the governor would appoint commissioners from both major parties and unaffiliated voters. The panel had to follow strict criteria that favored compactness, contiguity, and partisan fairness, while barring the intentional dilution of a group’s voting strength. The Legislature could still enact a different map, but had to hold a public vote and explain its reasons before doing so. However, the Utah legislature passed SB 200 before the 2020 redistricting cycle, which replaced the statutes enacted by Proposition 4. Notably, SB 200 did not include a ban on partisan gerrymandering, and while an independent commission could still propose maps in accordance with Proposition 4’s neutral redistricting criteria, the Legislature was not bound by those criteria and could reject the commission’s maps and adopt its own without explanation. Thus, Utah’s post-2020 congressional map was drawn entirely by the Legislature, not the voter-initiated Independent Redistricting Commission created by Proposition 4. The Utah Independent Redistricting Commission released new publicly submitted map proposals on October 12, 2021. However, lawmakers adopted their own congressional map (HB 2004) in a one-day special session on November 11, 2021. Governor Spencer Cox signed it a day later, locking in a four-district plan (Plan C2193) into place for the 2022 midterms. Voting-rights advocates responded with League of Women Voters of Utah v. Utah State Legislature, arguing that HB 2004 both violated the commission rules voters had approved and entrenched partisan advantage. A district judge initially narrowed the case, but the Utah Supreme Court reinstated all claims in July 2024, ruling that the lawsuit was justiciable. After a merits trial, the court struck down HB 2004 on August 25, 2025, restoring Proposition 4’s process and ordering legislators to pass a commission-compliant plan. The legislature passed a new map on Oct. 6, the revised deadline set by the court. The map will be evaluated as one of the options in the court-ordered remedial process. The court is taking evidence and must pick the map that will govern 2026 by Nov. 10, 2025.

The state legislative lines followed a parallel yet quieter path. During the same November 2021 special session, the legislature enacted SB 2006 for the 29-member Senate and HB 2005 for the 75-member House, with Governor Cox signing both on 16 November 2021. Those statutes largely ignored the commission’s alternative drafts but still satisfied constitutional population and contiguity rules; no lawsuits have been filed to date.

Last updated: October 2025