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John A. Pearce
2016 - Present
2031
9
John A. Pearce is a judge of the Utah Supreme Court. He assumed office on January 29, 2016. His current term ends on January 5, 2031.
Pearce ran for re-election for judge of the Utah Supreme Court. He won in the retention election on November 3, 2020.
Gov. Gary Herbert (R) appointed Pearce to the Utah Supreme Court on November 9, 2015.[1] After receiving unanimous confirmation by the Utah State Senate on December 16, 2015, Pearce was sworn into office on January 29, 2016.[2][3] To read more about judicial selection in Utah, click here.
In 2020, Ballotpedia published Ballotpedia Courts: State Partisanship, a study examining the partisan affiliation of all state supreme court justices in the country. As part of this study, we assigned each justice a Confidence Score describing our confidence in the degree of partisanship exhibited by the justices' past partisan behavior, before they joined the court.[4] Pearce received a confidence score of Mild Republican.[5] Click here to read more about this study.
Biography
Education
Pearce earned a B.S. in economics from the University of Utah in 1992 and a J.D. from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1996.[6]
Career
- 2016 - Present: Justice, Utah Supreme Court
- 2013-2016: Judge, Utah Court of Appeals
- 2009-2013: General counsel to Governor Gary Herbert
- 1999-2009: Attorney, Jones Waldo Holbrook & McDonough
- 1996-1999: Attorney, Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati[6]
Appointments
2015
Gov. Gary Herbert appointed Pearce to the Utah Supreme Court on November 9, 2015.[1]
2013
Gov. Gary Herbert appointed Pearce to the Utah Court of Appeals in October 2013.[6]
Elections
2020
- See also: Utah Supreme Court elections, 2020
Utah Supreme Court
John A. Pearce was retained to the Utah Supreme Court on November 3, 2020 with 81.5% of the vote.
Retention Vote |
% |
Votes |
|||
| ✔ | Yes |
81.5
|
1,025,585 | ||
No |
18.5
|
232,407 | |||
Total Votes |
1,257,992 | ||||
|
|
Campaign themes
2020
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
John A. Pearce did not complete Ballotpedia's 2020 Candidate Connection survey.
Analysis
Ballotpedia Courts: State Partisanship (2020)
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. This was not a measure of where a justice fell on an ideological spectrum, but rather a measure of how much confidence we had that a justice was or had been affiliated with a political party. The scores were based on seven factors, including but not limited to party registration.[7]
The five resulting categories of Confidence Scores were:
- Strong Democrat
- Mild Democrat
- Indeterminate[8]
- Mild Republican
- Strong Republican
This justice's Confidence Score, as well as the factors contributing to that score, is presented below. The information below was current as of June 2020.
John
Pearce
Utah
- Partisan Confidence Score:
Mild Republican - Judicial Selection Method:
Assisted appointment through governor controlled judicial nominating commission - Key Factors:
- Held political office as a Democrat
- Was a registered Republican before 2020
- Donated less than $2,000 to Democratic candidates
Partisan Profile
Details:
Pearce was a registered Republican before Gov. Gary Herbert (R) appointed him to the Utah Supreme Court in 2015. He was Gov. Herbert's general counsel. He donated $505 to President Barack Obama's (D) 2008 campaign. At the time of his appointment, Utah was a Republican trifecta.
Noteworthy cases
The section below lists noteworthy cases heard by this judge. To suggest cases we should cover here, email us.
State supreme court judicial selection in Utah
- See also: Judicial selection in Utah
The five justices of the supreme court are selected through assisted appointment. The governor selects a nominee from a list of recommended candidates from a judicial nominating commission. The nominee then must attain approval from the Utah Senate.
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.[9]
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.[9]
Chief justice
The chief justice of the supreme court is selected by peer vote. The chief justice of the supreme court serves in that capacity for four years.[9]
Vacancies
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. 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.[9]
The map below highlights how vacancies are filled in state supreme courts across the country.
See also
External links
|
Officeholder Utah Supreme Court |
Footnotes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Deseret News, "Governor nominates John Pearce to fill vacancy on Utah Supreme Court," November 10, 2015
- ↑ Dennis Romboy, KSL, "John Pearce confirmed by Senate as Utah Supreme Court justice," December 20, 2015
- ↑ Deseret News, "John Pearce sworn in as Utah Supreme Court justice," January 29, 2016
- ↑ We calculated confidence scores by collecting several data points such as party registration, donations, and previous political campaigns.
- ↑ The five possible confidence scores were: Strong Democrat, Mild Democrat, Indeterminate, Mild Republican, and Strong Republican.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 Utah.gov, "Governor Appoints Pearce to Appellate Court," October 25, 2013
- ↑ The seven factors were party registration, donations made to partisan candidates, donations made to political parties, donations received from political parties or bodies with clear political affiliation, participation in political campaigns, the partisanship of the body responsible for appointing the justice, and state trifecta status when the justice joined the court.
- ↑ 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.
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 9.3 American Judicature Society, "Methods of Judicial Selection," accessed August 20, 2021
| |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Current judges | Matthew Durrant, Diana Hagen, John A. Pearce, Paige Petersen, Jill Pohlman | ||
| Former judges | Christine Durham, Deno Himonas, Thomas Rex Lee, Ronald E. Nehring | ||
| ||||||||||
