Overview
- Lawmakers are presenting their case after plaintiffs spent Day 1 arguing the legislature’s Map C violates voter-approved Proposition 4’s neutral criteria.
- Plaintiffs’ expert Jowie Chen testified that Map C is an extreme partisan outlier, citing 10,000 simulated plans that produced a 3–1 Republican outcome in more than 99% of cases.
- Georgetown’s Chris Warshaw told the court Utah’s partisan-bias test is gameable and urged the efficiency gap as a better fairness measure for the state.
- Judge Gibson will choose from three options: the legislature’s Map C or two alternatives submitted by the plaintiffs.
- Additional hearings are set for Nov. 4 on the law prescribing three partisan-symmetry tests and Nov. 5 on a GOP initiative seeking to overturn Proposition 4.