Copyright Salt Lake City Deseret News
NEW DELHI — Utah state Rep. Matt MacPherson, R-West Valley City, sat down with the Deseret News while on a trade mission to India. While on his trip, he made waves in Utah after he said he would file legislation to impeach 3rd District Judge Dianna Gibson, who had just issued a ruling throwing out a congressional map drawn by the Utah Legislature in favor of a map provided by nonprofit groups. The map includes a district that would likely ensure a Democratic congressional seat in Utah. MacPherson and his wife Nicole had attended an Indian wedding earlier in the day and were still dressed in traditional Indian wedding clothes when he arrived at the hotel. Following the judge’s ruling, which came in the middle of the day in India but close to midnight in Utah, MacPherson posted on social media a statement that read, “I have opened a bill to file articles of impeachment against Judge Gibson for gross abuse of power, violating the separation of powers and failing to uphold her oath of office to the Utah Constitution.” MacPherson said he was “shocked” when he heard the news of the judge’s decision, prompting him to open the file Tuesday. “This ruling came out in the middle of the night in Utah but it was the middle of the day here in India. I had plenty of time to call our attorneys,” he said while sitting next to his wife in the lobby of the hotel. Gibson’s decision replaces the Legislature’s chosen map, passed in October, with one proposed by the League of Women Voters Utah and Mormon Women for Ethical Government. She said lawmakers failed to comply with the redistricting requirements in Proposition 4, which was narrowly approved by voters through the Better Boundaries initiative in 2018. But MacPherson thinks she overstepped her bounds by approving the map put forward by the nonprofits. “We went through this whole process in good faith, and we ended up with an ungerrymandered map,” he said of the legislative session held in October, as required by Gibson. “Nobody likes it. Republicans don’t like it. Democrats don’t like it but it’s what the process produced.” “For her to then throw the whole thing out and then pick a map that the Legislature never voted on and had no say in,” he continued. “It’s this weird mechanism that she created, like Frankenstein’s monster.” The West Valley City representative added, “We don’t like it. We think she’s wrong. We’ve appealed it.” As the Desert News reported, the map dramatically changes the boundaries for Utah’s four members of the U.S. House of Representatives. The 1st Congressional District, which previously encompassed northern Utah and the top half of Salt Lake County, will be a “clearly blue-leaning seat,” according to an analysis from the Center for Politics at University of Virginia. According to MacPherson, the judge failed to uphold her oath to the Constitution of the U.S. and Utah. “This may be strange for some people to hear, I don’t personally care about what the map looks like,” he said. “It doesn’t affect me, and even if it did affect me directly, my district today, I would just run for it all the same.” “But I care more about the Constitution,” MacPherson said. The Utah state lawmaker noted that this ruling sets a precedent, not just for Utah but nationwide. “Every other state is going through this conversation right now, and if we just let judges make legislation from the bench and start drawing their own maps in Utah, who knows where that goes?” he said. “It doesn’t matter if you’re Republican or Democrat. It doesn’t matter what state you’re in. You can’t have judges draw maps.” Utah Lt. Gov Deidre Henderson, a Republican, said in a statement that she‘s begun “the process of implementing” the new map “unless otherwise ordered by an appeals court.” A spokesperson for the Utah State Bar issued a statement saying, “The Utah State Bar strongly condemns any effort to impeach Judge Dianna Gibson based on her recent ruling. Judges are charged with applying the law to the facts of their cases without regard to politics or public opinion. Using impeachment as retaliation for an unfavorable decision undermines the rule of law and the separation of powers that safeguard our system of government.” Utah Gov. Spencer Cox responded to the judge’s decision on Tuesday. “The Utah Constitution clearly states that it is the responsibility of the Legislature to divide the state into congressional districts,” he said. “While I respect the Court’s role in our system, no judge, and certainly no advocacy group, can usurp that constitutional authority. For this reason, I fully support the Legislature appealing the Court’s decision.” MacPherson is currently on a two-week trade mission to India. Led by the World Trade Center Utah, this delegation, comprising of lawmakers, academics and members of state’s business community, is traveling to seven cities: Mumbai, Pune, Hyderabad, New Delhi and, lastly, Bangalore.
