Utah State Legislature v. League of Women

2025 UT 39
CourtUtah Supreme Court
DecidedSeptember 15, 2025
DocketCase No. 20251057
StatusPublished

This text of 2025 UT 39 (Utah State Legislature v. League of Women) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Utah Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Utah State Legislature v. League of Women, 2025 UT 39 (Utah 2025).

Opinion

This opinion is subject to revision before final publication in the Pacific Reporter 2025 UT 39

IN THE

SUPREME COURT OF THE STATE OF UTAH

LEAGUE OF WOMEN VOTERS OF UTAH, Respondents, v. UTAH STATE LEGISLATURE, Petitioners.

No. 20251057 Submitted September 11, 2025 Filed September 15, 2025

On Petition for Extraordinary Relief

Third District Court, Salt Lake City The Honorable Dianna M. Gibson No. 220901712

__________________________________________________________  Additional Respondents: Mormon Women for Ethical Government, Stefanie Condie, Malcolm Reid, Victoria Reid, Wendy Martin, Eleanor Sundwall, and Jack Markman. Lieutenant Governor Deidre Henderson is named as a defendant in this case but did not take a position on the petition and responded only to “reiterate that for her and the county clerks to effectively administer the 2026 Congressional election, there must be a definitive Congressional map in place no later than November 10, 2025.” Judge Dianna M. Gibson, a real party in interest, filed a notice stating that she would not respond to the petition and expressing her view that the “real-parties-in-interest are in the best position to make the appropriate arguments.” Additional Petitioners: Utah Legislative Redistricting Committee, Senator Scott Sandall, Representative Mike Schultz, Senator J. Stuart Adams. LWVU v. LEGISLATURE Per Curiam

Attorneys: Troy L. Booher, J. Frederic Voros, Jr., Caroline A. Olsen, David C. Reymann, Cheylynn Hayman, Salt Lake City, for respondents Victoria Ashby, Christine R. Gilbert, Alan R. Houston, Tyler R. Green, Salt Lake City, Taylor A.R. Meehan, Arlington, Va., for petitioners

PER CURIAM: INTRODUCTION ¶1 In late August, the district court in this case ruled that a citizen initiative referred to as Proposition 4, which was passed by the voters of Utah in 2018 and reformed the redistricting process, was a constitutionally protected exercise of Utahns’ right to reform their government. The court concluded that Proposition 4 had been unconstitutionally repealed and replaced by another law, Senate Bill 200 (S.B. 200), which eliminated Proposition 4’s key redistricting reforms. As a result, the district court enjoined the Congressional Map that has been in place in Utah since 2021 because it concluded the Map unconstitutionally violates the redistricting reforms that Utahns enacted through Proposition 4. ¶2 In consultation with the parties in this case, the district court developed a remedial process to put in place a congressional map that complies with Proposition 4 in time for the 2026 election. Time is short. The Lieutenant Governor has indicated that the map

__________________________________________________________  Additional attorneys: Kade N. Olsen, Salt Lake City, Mark P. Gaber, Aseem Mulji, Benjamin Phillips, Isaac DeSanto, Washington D.C., Annabelle Harless, Chicago, Ill., for respondents. Derek E. Brown, Att’y Gen., David N. Wolf, Lance Sorenson, Asst. Att’ys Gen., Sarah Goldberg, Asst. Solic. Gen., for defendant Lieutenant Governor Diedre Henderson. Stacy R. Haacke, Salt Lake City, for real parties in interest, Judge Dianna Gibson. Frank H. Chang, Marie E. Sayer, Arlington, Va., for petitioners.  The petition for extraordinary relief was referred to the full court for consideration. Having recused themselves, Associate Chief Justice Pearce and Justice Hagen do not participate herein. District Court Judge Jennifer A. Mabey and District Court Judge Tony F. Graf, Jr., sat in their place.

2 Cite as: 2025 UT 39 Per Curiam

must be in place by November 10, 2025, to ensure an orderly process leading up to the 2026 election. ¶3 Although Legislative Defendants disagree with the district court’s ruling, they have agreed to participate in the remedial process. However, they moved the district court to stay its injunction on the current Congressional Map during the remedial process and throughout any appeals they may take. This would mean that the current Congressional Map would be in effect throughout the remedial process and any subsequent appeals in this case. The district court denied Legislative Defendants’ motion. ¶4 This is the decision that Legislative Defendants challenge. Pursuant to rule 19 of the Utah Rules of Appellate Procedure, they have petitioned this court for extraordinary relief with respect to the district court’s denial of the request for a stay of its injunction on the Congressional Map. Legislative Defendants present one issue for our review: Whether the district court abused its discretion in refusing to stay its order permanently enjoining the use of H.B. 2004, the 2021 Congressional Map, because the court’s ordered remedial process doesn’t require compliance with all of Proposition 4. ¶5 For the reasons explained below, we deny Legislative Defendants’ petition. Their arguments focus largely on the district court’s remedial process, but they have not appealed from the order putting that process in place. Instead, they challenge the district court’s denial of their motion to stay the court’s injunction on the Congressional Map. However, their complaints about the remedial process do not demonstrate that the court’s denial of the stay order is legally wrong or that the court otherwise abused its discretion. Without that, they have not shown why they should receive the extraordinary relief they seek here.1 __________________________________________________________ 1 Legislative Defendants filed their petition on Friday, September 5, 2025, along with a Rule 23C Emergency Motion for Expedited Consideration of Emergency Petition for Extraordinary Relief. The motion sought expedited briefing on the petition and requested an order from this court granting or denying the petition by Monday, September 15, 2025. We invited Respondents to file responses to the petition, see UTAH R. APP. P. 19(k), granted the motion for expedited briefing, and now expedite our decision on the petition.

3 LWVU v. LEGISLATURE Per Curiam

BACKGROUND ¶6 In 2018, the people of Utah passed a citizen initiative aimed at ending partisan gerrymandering. Officially called the “Utah Independent Redistricting Commission and Standards Act,” the initiative is colloquially referred to as “Proposition 4.” Proposition 4 received enough citizen signatures to be placed on the ballot in 2018, and it was passed that year by voters during the general election. But before the 2020 redistricting cycle began, the Legislature enacted S.B. 200, which repealed Proposition 4 and replaced it with a new redistricting law referred to as S.B. 200. ¶7 Plaintiffs, League of Women Voters of Utah and others, brought suit. Relevant here, they alleged in Count V of their complaint that in proposing and passing Proposition 4, Utahns had used their initiative power to exercise their right under the Utah Constitution to alter or reform their government. And they contended that Legislative Defendants had violated those rights by repealing Proposition 4 and enacting S.B. 200 in its place. ¶8 Legislative Defendants moved to dismiss Count V in the district court. They argued that because the Legislature has authority to amend, repeal, and enact statutes—and a citizen initiative is a statute—the Legislature has unfettered authority to repeal citizen initiatives, including Proposition 4. The district court agreed with Legislative Defendants and dismissed Count V. ¶9 On interlocutory appeal of that decision, we held that the people’s right to alter or reform their government through a citizen initiative is protected from government infringement by the Utah Constitution. League of Women Voters of Utah v. Utah State Legislature, 2024 UT 21, ¶ 171, 554 P.3d 872.

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2025 UT 39, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/utah-state-legislature-v-league-of-women-utah-2025.