Just before midnight Monday, Utah Judge Dianna Gibson issued a bombshell ruling rejecting new congressional boundaries proposed by the Republican Legislature and picking another map that creates a district heavily favoring Democrats in the state.
“[The Legislature’s map] is an extreme partisan outlier—more Republican than over 99% of expected maps drawn without political considerations," Gibson wrote.
“In addition,” the judge wrote, “[the map] fails in many ways to comply with Proposition 4. First, [it] was drawn with partisan political data on display. [It] does not abide by Proposition 4’s traditional redistricting criteria ‘to the greatest extent practicable.’ And, based on the evidence presented, the Court finds that [it] was drawn with the purpose to favor Republicans ...and it unduly favors Republicans and disfavors Democrats.”
Read Gibson’s full, 89-page ruling here: