Utahns will miss state Supreme Court Justice John Pearce when he retires in December.

Just how much we will come to miss him depends on whom Gov. Spencer Cox appoints, and the Senate confirms, to replace him.

Recent choices for the five-member court should give us hope that our system will produce another of the independent and thoughtful legal scholars we have been lucky to have at the top of our state judicial system.

The current justices have distinguished themselves for following the law and defending democracy, rather than caving in to the prevailing political winds.

Their rulings in a number of cases have stopped the Republican supermajority in the Utah Legislature from running roughshod over abortion rights . Or dismantling the constitutionally guaranteed people’s right

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