As Utah’s high court has increasingly become a target for retaliation from the Legislature’s Republican supermajority, Gov. Spencer Cox announced his latest nomination for a soon-to-be-open justice position. If confirmed, Cox will have appointed a majority of the bench.
The nominated candidate, who still needs the Utah Senate’s approval, is 3rd District Judge John Nielsen. He summarized his judicial philosophy to reporters as “textualist” and “originalist.”
“There’s a right way and a less appropriate way to decide cases and to interpret … laws,” Cox said. “And I feel very strongly that that textualist and originalist approach is the only way to anchor our system in a way that doesn’t lead to eventual chaos. Judges are not supposed to pick laws or make up laws.”
Legal originalists and textualists generally believe legal documents, like the Constitution, should be interpreted now as they originally would have been understood by the public when those documents were enacted.
Adding to Cox’s comments, Nielsen said, “The essence of those philosophies is that you are trying to ensure that your interpretation fits with the intent of the lawmaker — in the case of the statute, the Legislature; in the case of the Constitution, the will of the people.”
Nielsen was nominated to the 3rd District Court by Cox just last September, and unanimously confirmed by the Senate the following month. If confirmed again, Nielsen will replace Justice John Pearce, who announced earlier this year that he’d be retiring in December.
The Senate Judicial Confirmation Committee, as of Tuesday afternoon, had not yet posted the date of its next meeting.
Nielsen’s appointment to the Supreme Court comes at a time of considerable tension between the Legislature and the court, which has repeatedly blocked key parts of the Republican supermajority’s agenda.
Justices upheld the pause on a law outlawing almost all abortions, limited the Legislature’s power to undo citizen-passed ballot initiatives and voided a proposed constitutional amendment that sought to undo the initiative ruling.
Cox, too, has expressed frustration with some of those decisions.
When asked whether he thought Nielsen’s “originalist” philosophy is missing from the current court, Cox responded, “I don’t know that it’s missing from the current court. I’ve been very forthright about some disagreements that I’ve had with the court, but that’s OK. That’s certainly part of the process.”
The governor, who is a lawyer, has so far vocally opposed most attempts by the Legislature to influence the courts’ operations.
But earlier this month, Cox signed a law revoking the Supreme Court justices’ authority to choose their own chief, instead designating the governor to pick the head of the high court every eight years, subject to Senate confirmation.
The governor vetoed a previous version of the bill that would have required him to pick a new chief every four years.
Cox said Tuesday he may now support a dead proposal from earlier this year to expand the number of justices on the Utah Supreme Court. The Utah Constitution says the court must have “at least five” justices.
Because of the length of time it takes to decide a case, Cox said, “I think it’s worth exploring how we get [justices] additional resources that they might need.”
‘Knows the facts up and down’
Nielsen started his career as a prosecutor in the Utah County Attorney’s office, then moved to the Utah attorney general’s office, where he was an assistant solicitor general.
He left that post to become a law partner with former Utah Supreme Court Justice Thomas Lee, who is the brother of U.S. Sen. Mike Lee.
Nielsen and Lee were hired to defend a state law that banned transgender girls from competing in girls’ school sports. The contract took effect hours after Lee’s retirement from the Utah Supreme Court was official, and days after Nielsen left the attorney general’s office, KUTV reported.
The transgender girls and their parents who brought that challenge dropped the lawsuit last week. After President Donald Trump issued an executive order barring transgender women and girls from playing in sports leagues and competitions designated for women and girls, complicating the case, it shifted the case’s timeline so that the Utah girls suing would likely be out of high school by the time it was resolved.
(Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) John Nielsen, left, is greeted by House Speaker Mike Schultz, following Nielsen’s nomination to the Utah Supreme Court at the Utah Capitol on Tuesday, October. 14, 2025. In the background are Chief Justice Matthew Durrant and Senate President Stuart Adams.
At his district court confirmation hearing last year, Nielsen acknowledged Lee’s influence on his life. “He has been there as a mentor, a colleague and a friend for many years, and I’m very grateful to him,” Nielsen said at the time.
During the year before his appointment to the district court, Nielsen was a partner at Schaerr Jaffe, a Washington-based firm co-founded by Gene Schaerr, who was born in Kanab and went on to be an associate White House counsel. Schaerr was hired to defend the state’s ban on same-sex marriage in Kitchen v. Herbert — the case, filed in 2013, that successfully stopped Utah from enforcing the prohibition.
During Nielsen’s confirmation hearing last year, senators upset with the spate of court rulings against them probed Nielsen on his judicial philosophy.
“There’s been some question about judicial activism, what it is and what it means,” Nielsen said, continuing, ”The way to constrain that and keep it from happening is to say, OK, I’m going to look at the plain language of this statute, its structure, at its grammar, at its history, where it came from, why it’s here, what it’s trying to accomplish, and then I’m going to do my utmost to apply that as it’s handed down.”
(Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) Mandy Nielsen shares a tender moment with her daughter Hope, 7, alongside her children Mason Voges, 16, and Ethan Nielsen, 4, as her husband John Nielsen is announced as a nominee to the Utah Supreme Court by Gov. Spencer Cox at the Capitol on Tuesday, October. 14, 2025.
Sen. Dan McCay, R-Riverton, said at the hearing that the relationship between lawmakers and the courts “is not healthy.” McCay said the two Supreme Court justices who had come before the confirmation committee during his tenure — Justices Diana Hagen and Jill Pohlman — gave answers to questions about legal processes and separation of powers that, McCay said, “are contrary to opinions they have written.”
“For some reason our judges are better chameleons than they’ve been in the past,” McCay said.
Nielsen said the best way to judge a nominee is based on the individual’s track record and what he or she has done.
Chief Justice Matthew Durrant, who has been critical of legislative efforts to exercise more power over the judiciary, endorsed Nielsen as an addition to the top court.
“I have never seen a better oral and written advocate than John Nielsen,” Durrant said Tuesday, continuing, “He actually answers the questions he puts in — that’s rare. He always knows the facts up and down, as well as the law.”
