Seven nominees were announced Tuesday as candidates to fill a soon-to-be-open seat on the Utah Supreme Court — and all of them are men.
Previous panels have included a mix of male and female nominees. Of the seven candidates announced to fill an open seat in February 2022, four were women. Another panel in May 2022 included three women, as did a September 2015 panel.
The nominees were chosen by the Appellate Court Nominating Commission, a group that interviews and vets possible candidates for the role before choosing seven to send to the governor. Members of the seven-person commission are appointed by the governor for four-year terms.
Gov. Spencer Cox now has 30 days to make an appointment from the panel, which then needs to be confirmed by the state Senate.
Utah’s five-person Supreme Court currently consists of three women, Justices Paige Peterson, Diana Hagen and Jill Pohlman, and two men, Chief Justice Matthew Durrant and Justice John Pearce. Pearce announced his retirement in June.
Gov. Spencer Cox appointed Hagen and Pohlman in 2022. The addition of a third justice means that Cox will have appointed a majority of the court.
“The governor did not ask the Appellate Court Nominating Commission to consider gender,” a spokesperson for Cox told The Salt Lake Tribune. “The commission’s evaluation is governed by factors established in statute and administrative rule. Gender is not one of the factors listed in statute or rule.”
Daniel Strong, a spokesperson for the Appellate Court Nominating Commission, said in an email Tuesday that there are “strict confidentiality rules around this process” that limit what can be shared publicly about the applicant pool and commission discussions.
“I can tell you that the [judicial nominating commissions] are required to focus only on merit-based criteria when determining who to send forward to the Governor,” Strong wrote. The criteria include, he said, “(a) integrity; (b) legal knowledge and ability; (c) professional experience; (d) judicial temperament; (e) work ethic; (f) financial responsibility; (g) public service; (h) ability to perform the work of a judge; and (i) impartiality.”
Strong, citing state code, said the commission “may also ‘consider the background and experience of the applicants in relation to the current composition of the bench” if all other qualifications between applicants are comparable.
One notable omission from the panel was Third District Court Judge Dianna Gibson, who was previously a finalist when a seat opened up on the Supreme Court in 2022. Gibson has come under fire recently after ordering the Legislature to redraw Utah’s congressional maps in line with a 2018 anti-gerrymandering initiative.
Pearce is set to step down December 1. Here are the nominees for his replacement:
Matthew Bell: Bell currently serves as a judge on Utah’s Fifth District Court, which includes Beaver, Iron, and Washington Counties. He is a former police officer and a graduate of Brigham Young University’s J. Reuben Clark Law School. He was appointed to the district court in September 2017 by former Gov. Gary Herbert.
James Gardner: Gardner has served on the Third District Court since his appointment in December 2014 by Herbert. He attended BYU and graduated from Duke University School of Law in 2000. In his current role, he serves Salt Lake, Summit, and Tooele counties.
Ryan Harris: Harris previously served as a trial judge in the Third District Court before he was appointed to the Court of Appeals by Herbert in June 2017. He has an undergraduate degree from BYU and graduated from Stanford Law School in 1998.
John Nielsen: Nielsen currently serves as a judge on the Third District Court, which oversees Salt Lake, Tooele, and Summit Counties. He was appointed by Cox in 2024 and graduated from BYU’s law school in 2007.
Derek Pullan: Pullan serves as a judge on the Fourth District Court, which includes Juab, Millard, Utah, and Wasatch Counties. He was appointed in September 2003 by former Gov. Michael O. Leavitt. He graduated from BYU’s law school in 1993 and previously clerked for the Utah Supreme Court.
Stanford Purser: Purser currently serves as the solicitor general for the Utah Attorney General’s Office. He was appointed to the role in March 2024 and has worked for the attorney general’s office since August 2011. He has both a bachelor’s degree and a juris doctorate from BYU.
Ryan Tenney: Tenney is currently a judge serving on Utah’s Court of Appeals, a role to which he was appointed to by Cox in June 2021. He previously worked as an adjunct law school professor at BYU, where here earned his juris doctorate.