Utah Supreme Court elections, 2022
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The term of one Utah Supreme Court justice expired on January 1, 2023. The one seat was up for retention election on November 8, 2022. The filing deadline for this election was July 15, 2022.[1]
Utah was one of 30 states that held elections for state supreme court in 2022. That year, 84 of the 344 seats on state supreme courts were up for election. Of those, 64 were held by nonpartisan justices, 13 were held by Republican justices, and eight were held by Democratic justices. For more on the partisan affiliation of state supreme court justices, click here. For an overview of state supreme court elections in 2022, click here.
Candidates and results
Petersen's seat
Utah Supreme Court, Paige Petersen's seat
Paige Petersen was retained to the Utah Supreme Court on November 8, 2022 with 82.7% of the vote.
Retention Vote |
% |
Votes |
|||
| ✔ | Yes |
82.7
|
757,044 | ||
No |
17.3
|
158,668 | |||
Total Votes |
915,712 | ||||
|
|
Voting information
- See also: Voting in Utah
About the Utah Supreme Court
- See also: Utah Supreme Court
The Utah Supreme Court is the court of last resort in Utah. It was established in 1894 when Utah became a state, partly growing out of an earlier territorial supreme court that was established by an act of the U.S. Congress in 1850. The court is composed of five members—a chief justice, an associate chief justice, and three justices—who serve renewable 10-year terms.[2]
Political composition
This was the political composition of the supreme court heading into the 2022 election. Judges are appointed by the governor from a list of names recommended by a nominating commission.
| ■ Matthew Durrant | Appointed by Gov. Michael Leavitt (R) in 2000; retained in 2014 | |
| ■ Diana Hagen | Appointed by Gov. Spencer Cox (R) in 2022 | |
| ■ John A. Pearce | Appointed by Gov. Gary Herbert (R) in 2015; retained in 2020 | |
| ■ Paige Petersen | Appointed by Gov. Gary R. Herbert (R) in 2017 | |
| ■ Jill Pohlman | Appointed by Gov. Spencer Cox (R) in 2022 |
Selection
- See also: Assisted appointment
The five justices of the supreme court are selected by assisted appointment. When a vacancy occurs on the court, the governor appoints a replacement from a list of seven names recommended by a nominating commission. The nominee then must attain approval from the Utah Senate.[3][4] New appointees serve for at least three years, after which they must run in a yes-no retention election. If retained, supreme court justices serve subsequent terms of ten years.[3]
Qualifications
To serve on the Utah Supreme Court, a judge must be:
- a citizen of the United States;
- a state resident for at least five years;
- admitted to practice law in the state;
- at least 30 years old; and
- no more than 75 years old.[3]
Selection of the chief justice
The chief justice is selected by peer vote. The chief justice serves in that capacity for four years.[3]
Analysis
Ballotpedia Courts: Determiners and Dissenters (2021)
In 2020, Ballotpedia published Ballotpedia Courts: Determiners and Dissenters, a study on how state supreme court justices decided the cases that came before them. Our goal was to determine which justices ruled together most often, which frequently dissented, and which courts featured the most unanimous or contentious decisions.
The study tracked the position taken by each state supreme court justice in every case they decided in 2020, then tallied the number of times the justices on the court ruled together. We identified the following types of justices:
- We considered two justices opinion partners if they frequently concurred or dissented together throughout the year.
- We considered justices a dissenting minority if they frequently opposed decisions together as a -1 minority.
- We considered a group of justices a determining majority if they frequently determined cases by a +1 majority throughout the year.
- We considered a justice a lone dissenter if he or she frequently dissented alone in cases throughout the year.
Summary of cases decided in 2020
- Number of justices: 5
- Number of cases: 70
- Percentage of cases with a unanimous ruling: 87.1%% (61)
- Justice most often writing the majority opinion: Justices Lee and Durrant (17)
- Per curiam decisions: 1
- Concurring opinions: 5
- Justice with most concurring opinions: Justice Lee (3)
- Dissenting opinions: 9
- Justice with most dissenting opinions: Justice Lee (5)
For the study's full set of findings in Utah, click here.
Ballotpedia Courts: State Partisanship (2020)
- See also: Ballotpedia Courts: State Partisanship
Last updated: June 15, 2020
In 2020, Ballotpedia published Ballotpedia Courts: State Partisanship, a study examining the partisan affiliation of all state supreme court justices in the country as of June 15, 2020.
The study presented Confidence Scores that represented our confidence in each justice's degree of partisan affiliation, based on a variety of factors. This was not a measure of where a justice fell on the political or ideological spectrum, but rather a measure of how much confidence we had that a justice was or had been affiliated with a political party. To arrive at confidence scores we analyzed each justice's past partisan activity by collecting data on campaign finance, past political positions, party registration history, as well as other factors. The five categories of Confidence Scores were:
- Strong Democrat
- Mild Democrat
- Indeterminate[5]
- Mild Republican
- Strong Republican
We used the Confidence Scores of each justice to develop a Court Balance Score, which attempted to show the balance among justices with Democratic, Republican, and Indeterminate Confidence Scores on a court. Courts with higher positive Court Balance Scores included justices with higher Republican Confidence Scores, while courts with lower negative Court Balance Scores included justices with higher Democratic Confidence Scores. Courts closest to zero either had justices with conflicting partisanship or justices with Indeterminate Confidence Scores.[6]
Utah had a Court Balance Score of 5.2, indicating Republican control of the court. In total, the study found that there were 15 states with Democrat-controlled courts, 27 states with Republican-controlled courts, and eight states with Split courts. The map below shows the court balance score of each state.
See also
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ Utah Code, "Chapter 12: Selection and Election of Judges," accessed February 3, 2022
- ↑ Utah State Courts, ""An Overview of the Utah Supreme Court,"" accessed January 27, 2015
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 American Judicature Society, "Methods of Judicial Selection: Utah," archived October 6, 2014
- ↑ American Judicature Society, "Methods of Judicial Selection: Utah; Judicial Nominating Commissions," archived January 13, 2014
- ↑ An Indeterminate score indicates that there is either not enough information about the justice’s partisan affiliations or that our research found conflicting partisan affiliations.
- ↑ The Court Balance Score is calculated by finding the average partisan Confidence Score of all justices on a state supreme court. For example, if a state has justices on the state supreme court with Confidence Scores of 4, -2, 2, 14, -2, 3, and 4, the Court Balance is the average of those scores: 3.3. Therefore, the Confidence Score on the court is Mild Republican. The use of positive and negative numbers in presenting both Confidence Scores and Court Balance Scores should not be understood to that either a Republican or Democratic score is positive or negative. The numerical values represent their distance from zero, not whether one score is better or worse than another.
Federal courts:
Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals • U.S. District Court: District of Utah • U.S. Bankruptcy Court: District of Utah
State courts:
Utah Supreme Court • Utah Court of Appeals • Utah District Courts • Utah Juvenile Courts • Utah Justice Courts
State resources:
Courts in Utah • Utah judicial elections • Judicial selection in Utah
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