Washington, D.C. – Today, Eric H. Holder, Jr., the 82nd Attorney General of the United States and Chairman of the National Democratic Redistricting Committee (NDRC), issued the following statement in response to Utah’s new, fair congressional map adopted as a result of the Third Judicial District Court’s decision in in League of Women Voters of Utah v. Utah State Legislature:

“This is a victory for democracy in Utah. For the first time since Proposition 4 was enacted at the ballot box seven years ago, Utahns will now finally be able to vote on a fair congressional map that adheres to that law,” said Eric H. Holder, Jr., the 82nd Attorney General of the United States and Chairman of the National Democratic Redistricting Committee (NDRC). “Make no mistake, the fight for fairness in Utah has not been and will not be easy, with too many Republicans continuing to do anything they can to overturn redistricting reforms enshrined into law by the people. However, the Court has sent a clear and important message: Proposition 4 is the law of the land, and it must therefore be fully enforced. This serves as a powerful reminder that when voters stand up to reclaim their rights, fairness can prevail.”

ADDITIONAL BACKGROUND:

In August, the Third Judicial District Court issued a decision in League of Women Voters of Utah v. Utah State Legislature, which fully reinstated Proposition 4, a state law that was enacted in 2018 through a ballot initiative, and struck down the state’s gerrymandered congressional map. The court ordered the legislature to redraw the state’s congressional map in a manner that adheres to strict guardrails against gerrymandering included in Proposition 4, which bans partisan gerrymandering and creates an independent redistricting commission. Additionally, Proposition 4 “require[s] the Legislature to enact or reject a commission recommended plan.” In a victory for voters, the Utah Supreme Court denied the state’s attempt to stop the redraw process, allowing it to proceed as the lower court ordered ahead of the 2026 midterms. 

Instead of pursuing a map similar to the fair, commission-proposed maps, each of which included a congressional district anchored in Salt Lake City, the legislature submitted another congressional gerrymander to the Court, created using an improper and inapplicable mapping metric called “partisan bias,” which produces unreliable results for states like Utah. The Court’s decision today rejected the legislature’s map, opting instead to adopt the map submitted by the plaintiffs in this case, which adheres to the voter-approved reforms in Proposition 4.

In 2018, Utahns passed Proposition 4, a ballot measure that aimed to reform the state’s redistricting process and parameters for maps to ensure fairness. Those parameters include a ban on partisan gerrymandering and a requirement to keep communities of interest together and minimize the splitting apart of cities, counties, and towns, among other criteria for redistricting. However, leading up to the 2021 redistricting cycle, the Republican-led Utah legislature usurped the newly enacted ballot measure and replaced it with significantly watered-down reforms.

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