- Top Utah lawmakers are backing away from plans to propose a constitutional amendment to address ballot initiatives this year.
- An amendment has been floated for months since a judge threw out Utah's old congressional map.
- A group that is suing the Legislature said it remains "confident" it will succeed in an ongoing court case.
SALT LAKE CITY — Top Utah lawmakers are backing away from plans to propose a constitutional amendment to address ballot initiatives this year, saying instead they want to wait for the outcome of an ongoing lawsuit over redistricting.
Republicans have long been promising to propose a constitutional amendment to give them power to overturn citizen ballot initiatives after a Utah judge threw out the state's congressional map after ruling that the Legislature had violated the anti-gerrymandering statute known as Proposition 4.
But leaders in both the House and Senate suggested Wednesday they will wait for the legal case to play out.
"We believe it's appropriate to allow the litigation to continue through the courts before considering whether any further action is necessary," said House Speaker Mike Schultz, R-Hooper. "Our focus remains on defending the Legislature's constitutional authority through the judicial process."
Senate President Stuart Adams, R-Layton, echoed the sentiment.
"As we continue to defend the constitutional authority of lawmakers and the voice of the people, we believe this litigation should proceed through the judicial process," he said. "We remain steadfast in our responsibility to uphold the Constitution and protect the principles that preserve our republic."
Lawmakers had tried to propose a similar constitutional amendment in 2024 that would have allowed them to overrule voters and draw district lines however they wanted, but the proposal was invalidated by a judge who said the language on the ballot question was misleading.
A Republican-led effort to repeal Proposition 4 failed to qualify for this year's ballot after falling short of the signature threshold.
One of the groups that sued the Legislature over Utah's congressional maps said it remains "confident" the ultimate outcome will be in its favor.
"The voters of Utah have always honored the Legislature's role in redistricting," said Katharine Biele, president of the League of Women Voters of Utah. "The only restriction is that they act fairly, as the citizen initiative Proposition 4 required. We are confident that our case is solid and look forward to representing the voters in court."
Proposition 4 narrowly passed in 2018. It created an independent commission to advise lawmakers on drawing political boundaries and established neutral criteria meant to curb partisan gerrymandering. Lawmakers replaced that commission with an advisory panel of its own, but ultimately adopted maps they drew themselves.
A new map is in place for this year's midterm elections that gives Democrats an advantage in Utah's 1st Congressional District.
Polls have shown that voters broadly favor having some sort of advisory panel help the Legislature create and adopt maps. A poll by the conservative-leaning Sutherland Institute released in December showed fewer than 1 in 10 voters want the Legislature to draw maps on its own.
