Redistricting plaintiffs challenge Utah legislature over 'Constitutional Court' trigger law

SALT LAKE CITY (ABC4) — After challenging the initial Utah law that created a three-judge panel to move some of the state’s highest-profile cases to a new panel of judges, the plaintiffs in Utah’s redistricting case are now also challenging the so-called Constitutional Court trigger law as unconstitutional. It comes on the same day Governor Cox signed the bill.

In a filing with the Utah Supreme Court on Friday, lawyers for League of Women Voters, Mormon Women for Ethical Government, and some voters filed a challenge to H.B. 366 and its companion rule change, H.J.R. 6 as part of their existing redistricting lawsuit. The law’s main function is to clarify that any party can file to move a case away from a district judge to a three-judge panel instead of just the state. But the law also has a trigger provision that if the three-judge panel law, H.B. 392, is struck down, then a Constitutional Court is triggered.

H.B. 366’s contingent creation of a constitutional court violates Article VIII by depriving the district court of its constitutionally conferred status as a court of general jurisdiction,” the lawsuit alleges. “Article VIII does not authorize the Legislature to abridge the district court’s general subject matter jurisdiction.”

In other words, the plaintiffs allege that the legislature can’t take away the district court’s Constitutional power as a court of general jurisdiction by creating a “Constitutional Court” to hear only challenges to Utah’s constitution.



https://www.abc4.com/news/politics/inside-utah-politics/redistricting-plaintiffs-legislature-constitutional-court-trigger-law/