SALT LAKE CITY (AP) - The Latest on a ruling on a Utah elections lawsuit (all times local):
5:05 p.m.
Utah Republican Party Chairman Rob Anderson says the party has not yet decided its next steps in a legal battle over a state law overhauling how political parties nominate candidates.
Anderson told the Associated Press on Tuesday afternoon that party officials will have to decide whether to ask the entire 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver to reconsider the GOP’s case, appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court or walk away.
The party’s lawsuit over the state elections law has divided the party. Anderson had sought at one point to end the lawsuit but other party activists fought to continue the case.
He put out a statement Tuesday afternoon urging the party to put aside the divisions and come together.
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11:20 a.m.
A federal appeals court has ruled against Utah’s Republican Party and upheld a state law overhauling how political parties nominate candidates.
The U.S. 10th Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday said the 2014 law balances the state’s interest in managing elections while allowing political parties and residents a way to express their political choices.
Utah’s GOP argued the law allowing candidates to bypass GOP nominating conventions and instead participate in a primary is unconstitutional. The party says it has a right to determine how it picks its candidates.
The lawsuit is the party’s second unsuccessful attempt to challenge the law.
The protracted legal battle left the party saddled with debt and played a role in the party chairman’s ouster last year.
New Utah GOP chairman Rob Anderson did not immediately have a comment on the ruling.
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