Gov. Spencer Cox signs legislation enlarging Utah’s Supreme Court just weeks before it is expected to rule on a consequential congressional redistricting appeal.
By yourNEWS Media Newsroom
Utah’s Supreme Court was expanded from five justices to seven on Saturday after Republican Gov. Spencer Cox signed legislation into law creating two new seats on the state’s highest court, a move that takes effect immediately as the court prepares to hear a closely watched appeal over congressional district boundaries. The governor approved the measure through the enactment of Senate Bill 134, which passed the Legislature strictly along party lines, according to multiple reports.
The bill did not receive a single affirmative vote from Democratic lawmakers in either chamber of the Utah State Legislature, while more than 70 percent of Republicans in both the House and Senate supported the expansion, voting records show from the upper chamber.
The court’s enlargement follows an August 2025 ruling by District Court Judge Dianna Gibson, who was appointed by former Republican Gov. Gary Herbert. In that decision, Gibson ordered the state to redraw its congressional districts, concluding that the existing map amounted to partisan gerrymandering. Utah Republicans subsequently moved to appeal the ruling to the Supreme Court, placing the issue before the very body whose size has now been increased.
At stake is which congressional map will govern Utah’s U.S. House elections in the November midterms. All four of the state’s current House districts are held by Republicans, and each supported President Donald Trump by at least 19 percentage points in the 2024 presidential election. However, in November 2025, Gibson approved a revised map that reconfigured one district into a safely Democratic seat after it voted for Kamala Harris by more than 20 percentage points in 2024. If implemented, the map would effectively guarantee the loss of one Republican-held seat in the midterms.
With the addition of two justices, Cox will have the opportunity to nominate candidates who, if confirmed, would give him five appointees on the seven-member court. Each nominee must be approved by the Utah State Senate, where Republicans hold a supermajority with 22 of the chamber’s 29 seats. All five current justices were appointed by Republican governors, including one by former Gov. Mike Leavitt, one by Herbert, and three by Cox.
Supporters of the bill argued that expanding the court would improve its capacity to handle complex cases. Utah House Majority Leader Casey Snider, a Republican and sponsor of S.B. 134, defended the move in comments reported by The Salt Lake Tribune, saying, “I would err on the side that seven sets of eyes reviewing the most complex and difficult issues our state has ever faced is better than having only five sets of eyes.”
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