Overview
- Judge Dianna Gibson opened a two-day evidentiary hearing on Oct. 23 to decide whether the Legislature’s new congressional plan complies with the voter-approved Better Boundaries standards.
- Plaintiffs’ expert Jowei Chen testified that more than 99% of his 10,000 neutrally generated maps produced at least one Democratic-leaning district, calling the enacted plan an extreme partisan outlier.
- Chen said ensembles used by the Legislature’s experts over-split counties and, in Michael Barber’s code, excluded Salt Lake County from county protections, producing comparisons that tilt Republican.
- Barber and fellow Legislature expert Sean Trende defended their simulations, with Barber calling Chen’s approach a black box and asserting the enacted plan performs like a typical neutral map under SB1011’s tests.
- The court must decide which metrics govern, including whether SB1011’s three prescribed tests apply, with the outcome likely determining whether 2026 contests feature four safe GOP seats or at least one Democratic-leaning district.