By Addy Baird | The Salt Lake Tribune | Graphic by the Salt Lake Tribune

A judge’s ruling Monday that state lawmakers must redraw Utah’s congressional boundaries to comply with a voter-approved ballot initiative aimed at ending partisan gerrymandering could cost Utah Republicans one of their four seats in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Judge Dianna Gibson’s order prohibits the current congressional maps from being used in any future election and gives the Legislature 30 days to adopt new boundaries that comply with Better Boundaries’ Proposition 4, the citizen-passed initiative — a decision that Utah Sen. Mike Lee called a “judicial takeover.”

“The Utah courts are now invalidating both the legislature’s amendments and Utah’s existing congressional-district maps,” Lee wrote on the social media platform X Monday night. “This is a great day for Utah’s Democrats — who haven’t controlled the Utah legislature in many, many decades (because most Utah voters don’t like what the Democratic Party is selling), and have found a clever way to even the score by enlisting the help of their judicial allies.”

A spokesperson for Rep. Blake Moore, who represents the 1st Congressional District and serves in House leadership, said they had no comment on the ruling, while a spokesperson for Rep. Mike Kennedy referred comment to a campaign spokesperson, Joe DeBose.

“That’s a state issue still going through the courts,” DeBose said, seemingly referring to the possibility that state lawmakers may appeal the ruling. “Congressman Mike Kennedy remains focused on working every day to deliver results for working families and to make Utah and America stronger than ever.”

Read more at SLTrib.com.

This article is published through the Utah News Collaborative, a partnership of news organizations in Utah that aims to inform readers across the state.