Deno Himonas
Deno Himonas was a judge of the Utah Supreme Court. He assumed office on March 18, 2015. He left office on March 1, 2022.
Himonas ran for re-election for judge of the Utah Supreme Court. He won in the retention election on November 6, 2018.
Himonas retired from the Utah Supreme Court to return to private practice.[1] To learn more about this vacancy, click here.
Himonas first became a member of the Utah Supreme Court when he was nominated by Governor Gary Herbert on December 18, 2014, to fill the vacancy created by the retirement of Justice Ronald Nehring.[2] His nomination was unanimously confirmed by the Senate Judicial Confirmation Committee on February 10, 2015, and then by the Utah State Senate on February 13, 2015.[3][4] 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.[5] Himonas received a confidence score of Mild Republican.[6] Click here to read more about this study.
Biography
Himonas received his undergraduate degree from the University of Utah in 1986 and his J.D. from the University of Chicago in 1989. Before his judicial career, Himonas worked as a litigator for Jones, Waldo, Holbrook, and McDonough, a law firm specializing in complex civil litigation. He was appointed to the Third Judicial District Court by former Governor Olene Walker in June 2004 and served on this court until his confirmation to the Utah Supreme Court in February 2015.[7][8]
Elections
2018
- See also: Utah Supreme Court elections, 2018
Utah Supreme Court, Himonas' seat
Deno Himonas was retained to the Utah Supreme Court on November 6, 2018 with 78.6% of the vote.
Retention Vote |
% |
Votes |
|||
| ✔ | Yes |
78.6
|
688,473 | ||
No |
21.4
|
187,038 | |||
Total Votes |
875,511 | ||||
|
|
Performance evaluations
The Utah Judicial Performance Evaluation Commission, following a 2018 survey, recommended that Himonas be Retained. The full report is available here.
2014
Retention election
Himonas was retained to the Third District with 71.2 percent of the vote on November 4, 2014. [8]
Performance evaluations
The Utah Judicial Performance Evaluation Commission, following a 2014 survey, recommended that Himonas be Retained. The full report is available here.
Nomination to Supreme Court
Himonas first became a member of the Utah Supreme Court when he was nominated by Governor Gary Herbert on December 18, 2014, to fill the vacancy created by the retirement of Justice Ronald Nehring.[2]
2008
Himonas was retained to the Third Judicial District Court in November 2008.[9]
2004
Himonas was appointed to the Third Judicial District Court by former Governor Olene Walker in June 2004.[7]
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.[10]
The five resulting categories of Confidence Scores were:
- Strong Democrat
- Mild Democrat
- Indeterminate[11]
- 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.
Deno
Himonas
Utah
- Partisan Confidence Score:
Mild Republican - Judicial Selection Method:
Assisted appointment through governor controlled judicial nominating commission - Key Factors:
- Appointed by a Republican governor
- State was a Republican trifecta at time of appointment
Partisan Profile
Details:
Himonas was appointed in December 2014 by Gov. Gary Herbert (R). At the time of his appointment, Utah was a Republican trifecta.
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.[12]
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.[12]
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.[12]
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.[12]
The map below highlights how vacancies are filled in state supreme courts across the country.
See also
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ The Salt Lake Tribune, "Utah Supreme Court Justice Deno Himonas retires, plans return to private sector," accessed March 1, 2022
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Deseret News, "Gov. Herbert nominates 3rd District Judge Deno Himonas to Utah Supreme Court," December 18, 2014
- ↑ The Salt Lake Tribune, "Judge Deno Himonas gets nod from Senate committee for Utah Supreme Court," February 10, 2015
- ↑ State of Utah Office of the Governor, "Statement on confirmation of Utah Supreme Court Justice Himonas," February 13, 2015
- ↑ 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.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 Utah Courts, "Associate Presiding Judge Constandinos Himonas," archived February 8, 2015
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 Utah Elections, "2014 Candidate Filings," accessed March 27, 2014
- ↑ Utah Elections, "2008 General Election Results," archived December 1, 2014
- ↑ 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.
- ↑ 12.0 12.1 12.2 12.3 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 | ||
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
