On February 23, a 3-judge U.S. District Court in Utah declined to stop the U.S. House redistricting plan that had been imposed by a state court. Two of the plaintiffs are Republican members of the U.S. House, Celeste Maloy and Burgess Owens. Gardner v Henderson, 2:26cv-84. Here is the decision.

The plaintiffs had argued that Article One of the U.S. Constitution does not permit any government body except the legislature to write election laws for congressional elections. The Court did not agree that that theory fits this case, and furthermore said the federal case had been filed too close to the Utah primary. It agreed that the plaintiffs do have standing. The decision is unsigned. The three judges are Tenth Circuit Judge Timothy Tymkovich, a Bush Jr. appointee; Holly Teeter, a Trump appointee; and Robert J. Shelby, an Obama appointee.

Judge Tymkovich wrote separately to say he does not think the case was filed too late. But he agreed that Article One does not bar the state court from having acted, because, as he said, the state court’s authority derived from the state legislature’s pre-existing laws.