Tribune editorial: Utah should find another judge like John Pearce to serve on state Supreme Court

Utahns will miss state Supreme Court Justice John Pearce when he retires in December.

Just how much we will come to miss him depends on whom Gov. Spencer Cox appoints, and the Senate confirms, to replace him.

Recent choices for the five-member court should give us hope that our system will produce another of the independent and thoughtful legal scholars we have been lucky to have at the top of our state judicial system.

The current justices have distinguished themselves for following the law and defending democracy, rather than caving in to the prevailing political winds.

Their rulings in a number of cases have stopped the Republican supermajority in the Utah Legislature from running roughshod over abortion rights. Or dismantling the constitutionally guaranteed people’s right to have meaningful access to the initiative and referendum process. Or being faced with a brazenly misleading proposal to amend the state Constitution

Their assertion of proper judicial authority earned the whole court the designation as The Salt Lake Tribune’s Utahns of the Year for 2024.

The bad news is that, mostly because of those rulings, legislative leadership has been looking for ways to undermine the court’s authority. Top lawmakers have denounced the court as acting in an improperly partisan manner, just because its rulings didn’t please the hyper-partisan Legislature.

But Pearce’s decision to retire — to, in his words, “find new ways to serve the people of Utah” — demonstrates anything but partisanship or an overly political agenda.

At the relatively young age — for judges — of 56, and a lifetime appointment, Pearce could have clung to his seat for many more years. If all he cared about was making sure his own rulings stood, that would have been his likely path.

But, unlike some others in Utah public life, Pearce is demonstrating faith in the system and declaiming any right to rule.

It will now be up to the governor to appoint, and the Senate to confirm, not a political toady who can be counted on to defer to the political branches of government, but, like John Pearce, a true defender of Utah’s Constitution and laws.

Editorials represent the opinions of The Salt Lake Tribune editorial board, which operates independently from the newsroom.