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.”

Legal originalists and textualists generally believe legal documents, like the Constitution, should be interpreted now as they were originally meant when those documents were enacted.

Nielsen was nominated to the 3rd District Court by Cox just last September, and unanimously confirmed by the Senate the following month. If confirmed

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