3rd District Court Judge finds merit in lawsuit over redistricting

In a late October ruling, Judge Diana Gibson issued a summary judgment finding merit in a lawsuit by the Mormon Women for Ethical Government seeking to overturn the Utah Legislature's 2020 redrawing of congressional district boundaries. Gibson's ruling will allow the MWEG lawsuit to proceed.

SALT LAKE CITY — While final counting continues in Tuesday’s midterm election, the Mormon Women for Ethical Government (MWEG) are wondering what the balloting’s results might have been if Utah’s 2020 redistricting process had been conducted fairly.

MWEG leaders now have reason to hope for change after a late October ruling from 3rd District Court Judge Dianna Gibson in their favor.

Gibson issued a summary judgment siding with MWEG that their lawsuit challenging the 2020 redistricting process has merit and may proceed.

This is a significant victory that sets our case on a good path,” said Emma Petty Addams, the co-executive director of MWEG. “We look forward to arguing the merits of this case in court.”

In 2018, Utah voters passed a reform initiative that created an Independent Redistricting Commission to redraw congressional and state political boundaries based on the results of the 2020 Census. When enacted by the Legislature in 2020, however, that commission became advisory in nature.

Although the independent redistricting panel proposed dozens of district maps, the Legislature ignored them in in favor of a Legislative proposal that split Salt Lake County into four safely GOP-dominated congressional districts.

In March of 2022, the League of Women’s Voters of Utah and the Mormon Women for Ethical Government joined forces to challenge the redistricting process in court.

What’s at stake is really the 4th Congressional District, which had previously always been competitive.

In 2018, for example, the influence of liberal Salt Lake City voters sent freshman Democratic Congressman Ben McAdams to Washington.

He was subsequently defeated in 2020 by Republican Burgess Owens in a hotly contested race that set Utah records for campaign spending.

But, after redistricting, Owens won easily re-election on Tuesday with 60 percent of the vote compared to Democrat Darlene McDonald’s ballot haul of 33 percent.

Owens’ victory was at least partially attributable, the leaders of the MWEG contend, to the Legislature’s dubious redrawing of district boundaries. The 2020 redistricting process moved the 4th Congressional District out of populous communities like South Salt Lake and Millcreek and into central Utah towns like Ephraim and Manti, combining them with parts of Lehi, Saratoga Springs, Eagle Mountain and Nephi.

The MWEG lawsuit brands that change as partisan gerrymandering, pure and simple.

“What the Utah Legislature has done is not the way things should be done in a democracy,” said Stefanie Condie, a named plaintiff in the MWEG lawsuit. “We are grateful for the judge’s ruling against our opponent’s motion to dismiss our lawsuit before it could even go to trial.”

Representing the state, attorneys had sought to have the District Court dismiss the MWEG and LWV lawsuits for lack of merit.

But the plaintiffs’ attorneys successfully argued that the state’s contentious redistricting process was unconstitutional. They also argued that, by effectively discarding a ballot initiative that created an independent redistricting commission, the legislature neutered the initiative process as a tool of the voting public, stripping voters of access to free and fair elections.

Judge Gibson agreed that the case should go to trial.

“This case raises important issues that deserve to be considered by the courts,” according to Victoria Reid, another plaintiff in the MWEG suit. “Does the partisan gerrymandered map violate the Utah Constitution? Have our rights as citizens to fair representation been denied?

These are questions at the core of our democracy and the court should revolve them.”

“MWEG is dedicated to the idea that each of us has both the right and the responsibility to participate in government. To do that, we need every vote to matter. Everything flows from that,” said Wendy Dennehy, a senior director for advocacy, voting rights and ethics for MWEG.

“We hope this litigation will make it possible for all Utahns to be able to cast votes that matter. We’re so glad that Judge Gibson has ruled in our favor.”

Mormon Women for Ethical Government is a non-profit group dedicated to inspiring women of faith to transcend partisanship and courageously advocate for ethical government.

The MWEG is not affiliated with or endorsed by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

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1 Comment

  • Reavers November 12, 2022 at 12:50 pm Reply

    It about time! This state with all of its growth with peolle moving here is on the edge of turning blue.

    Its just a shame that instead of fairness, the GOP proceeds without any ethics. People before party.

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