Comments about ‘Utah Supreme Court chief justice stepping down, plans to stay on the court’

When I was in law school (1972-75) the Utah Supreme Court was the brunt of several bad jokes. Beginning with Gov. Rampton and fortunately following through with each subsequent the Utah Supreme Court improved. chief justice Durrant will raise the trajectory once again.

I disagree with rawlshea.

With Ms. Durham as the Chief Justice, the Utah Supreme Court has had more than its share of bad decisions. For example, just a few years ago the U. S. Supreme Court overturned a Utah Supreme Court decision 9 to 0, stating in its decision that it (the U. S. Supreme Court) took the case only to correct the Utah Supreme Court's failure to apply "well settled law." The case involved a search by Brigham City police, which the Utah Supreme Court, with Ms. Durham writing the opinion, had ruled was illegally done. The U. S. Supreme Court stated in its opinion that the Utah court had completely disregarded settled law.

That one case was an embarrassment for the Utah judiciary, but case is just one of many. In my opinion, the Utah courts will improve dramatically when Ms. Durham steps down.