Court rules Utah must redraw its congressional districts

SALT LAKE CITY (ABC4) — A judge in Utah has ruled against the state Legislature in its redistricting case, ruling that current congressional boundaries are the result of lawmakers unconstitutionally overturning a citizen ballot initiative that created an independent redistricting commission.

The ruling from Utah Third District Judge Dianna Gibson dictates that those maps must be tossed out and that the citizen-approved Proposition 4, which prohibited partisan gerrymandering, is now the law governing redistricting in Utah.

The highly anticipated ruling is a major decision from the lower courts, which outlines that the legislature has 30 days to draw the new maps that satisfy the anti-gerrymandering requirements in Prop 4.

"Redistricting is a legislative function," Gibson wrote in her rul