Q16

[mcrittell]

Using the supplied diagram, how would one fig out the answer to this question, especially how do you rule out that C wouldn't work for both situations?

[timmydoeslsat]

This is a must be true question on a local rule.

If two judges vote against Datalog, then we know that five voted for it.

We also know from the rules that at least one C voted against.

You may have also inferred that at least one L must vote for. This is because if you had LLL on the against side, no C can vote the same way, but we know that C DOES VOTE that way. Thus at least one L needs to be on the for side.

Back to the question.

Voted for -----Voted Against

L _ _ _ _ ----- C _

OK. this can't be too hard. There are only three possibilities here. Let us try to put a C there, a M there, and a L there in the remaining against spot.

With a "C"


Voted for -----Voted Against

L L L M M ----- C C

Works!


With a "M"

Voted for -----Voted Against

L L L M C ----- C M

Does not work! When the 3 L's vote a certain way, no C's can!

At this point, you can think to yourself, hey!...a moderate cannot vote against in this situation! This would lead you to A.

To complete the hypotheticals:


With a "L"

Voted for -----Voted Against

L L M M C ----- C L

This also works.

Notice that the first conditional rule in the game is not tested in this scenario because we will not have the sufficient condition arise.

[maryadkins]

Thanks for the question, and good explanation.

Just to be clear, we know that answer choice (C) won't work because it doesn't HAVE to be true that no Cs voted "for." It's possible--both Cs could vote "against." But it's also possible that one C voted "for" and one L voted "against." This would mean the other C would vote "for" (without violating the 3L --> no Cs rule because we wouldn't have 3 Ls on one side). So answer choice (C) is a "could be true" but not a "must be true." We're looking for a must.