Utah Supreme Court denies Legislature’s bid to stay injunction against 2021 congressional map

The Utah Supreme Court, in a per curiam opinion filed Sept. 15, 2025, denied the Utah State Legislature’s emergency petition seeking a stay of a Third District Court injunction that prohibits use of the 2021 congressional map (H.B. 2004). The Legislature had asked the high court to suspend the district court’s injunction while the parties complete a court-ordered remedial process and pursue appeals.

The issue before the Supreme Court was narrow: whether the district court abused its discretion by refusing to stay its permanent injunction against the 2021 map. The Supreme Court concluded the Legislature had not shown such an abuse of discretion and therefore was not entitled to extraordinary relief under Utah Rule of Appellate Procedure 19(a) and Utah Rule of Civil Procedure 65B(d).

The background to the dispute dates to 2018, when voters passed the citizen initiative officially titled the “Utah Independent Redistricting Commission and Standards Act,” commonly called Proposition 4, which reformed the redistricting process. Before the 2020 cycle, the Legislature enacted S.B. 200; plaintiffs led by the League of Women Voters of Utah argued S.B. 200 repealed and impaired the reforms in Proposition 4. On remand from this court’s earlier decision in League…