Utah Lawmakers Consider Expanding Supreme Court From 5 To 7 Justices

Utah lawmakers are preparing to move quickly on a long-discussed plan to expand the state’s highest court, with legislative leaders signaling the Utah Supreme Court could grow from five justices to seven as early as the first week of the 2026 session.

State Sen. Todd Weiler indicated this week that the expansion is no longer a distant proposal but an imminent legislative priority.

“Like most states of our size, we’re going to go up to seven, and that will probably happen in the first week of the session,” Weiler said, ABC 4 reported.

Weiler made the remarks while hosting the right-leaning podcast Political as Heck alongside attorney Corey Astill. Their conversation focused heavily on the fallout from a recent special legislative session and a controversial November ruling by Judge Dianna Gibson that struck at the heart of Utah’s redistricting authority.

Gibson ruled that the Legislature violated Utah’s anti-gerrymandering ballot initiative, Proposition 4, when lawmakers redrew congressional maps following court involvement. The decision has fueled growing frustration among Republican legislators who argue the judiciary is increasingly encroaching on constitutionally granted legislative powers.

Weiler said the ruling stripped lawmakers of what he characterized as a limited but important degree of authority. Gibson further ordered the lieutenant governor to address boundary disputes involving district lines that run through individual homes and apartment buildings.

According to Weiler, had lawmakers retained full control of the mapping process, those decisions would have remained firmly within the Legislature’s purview.

Astill expressed hope that the Utah Supreme Court would ultimately take up an appeal of the ruling, a possibility that could coincide with a newly expanded bench.

“It may very well be that the Supreme Court has two new members by the time the court takes this up because the governor has funded in his budget two additional members,” Weiler said.

Weiler emphasized that the Legislature’s authority to determine the size of the Supreme Court is explicitly outlined in the state constitution.

“When we were a state in 1896 with less than 300,000 people, we had five Supreme Court justices,” Weiler said.

“Now that we’re 3.5 million people, we still have five Supreme Court justices,” he added.

While court expansion has been floated for years, lawmakers have not yet finalized the exact timing of a vote. Still, legislative sources familiar with internal discussions confirmed to ABC 4 that the governor’s proposal is actively under consideration.

Weiler said he first raised the idea of expanding the court three or four years ago. Gov. Spencer Cox publicly endorsed the move last month, signaling executive branch support for the effort.

Lawmakers briefly advanced a bill to expand the court during the 2025 legislative session but ultimately shelved it. This time, however, momentum appears stronger amid escalating tensions between the legislative and judicial branches.

Much of that tension stems from a 2024 ruling that restricted the Legislature’s ability to amend voter-approved initiatives unless lawmakers could demonstrate a compelling public interest. Republican lawmakers derided the decision as creating a judicially enforced “super law,” arguing it improperly elevates ballot initiatives above statutes passed by elected representatives.

Supporters of court expansion have also pointed to increasing appellate and Supreme Court caseloads as a practical justification for adding justices.

Nationally, Utah would be aligning itself with the majority of states. According to the National Center for State Courts, 28 states operate with seven Supreme Court justices, 17 have five, and the remaining states have nine.