Courts & rulings
Utah · highest court
Utah Supreme Court
Merit + retention
Chief: As of a 2025 law effective January 2026, the chief justice is appointed by the Governor (subject to Senate confirmation) for an eight-year term; previously the justices elected the chief and associate chief from among themselves to four-year terms.
Justices
All judges & justices →- Matthew B. Durrant
- Jill M. Pohlman
- Paige Petersen
- John Nielsen
- Stephen Dent
- Jay Jorgensen
Roster as of 2026-06-13.
Constitution of Utah
Adopted 1896. Its declaration of rights sits in Article I (Declaration of Rights). This court has the final word on what the Utah constitution means.
Primacy, interprets its own constitution first
How a state reads its own rights provisions relative to the federal floor, lockstep vs departure.
State-court structure and selection methods are from official and reference sources; the justice roster is point-in-time. Civibrief carries each state's highest court (lower state courts are out of scope for now).