{"id":1778,"date":"2026-06-15T19:37:12","date_gmt":"2026-06-15T19:37:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/americanmovershub.com\/?p=1778"},"modified":"2026-06-15T19:37:12","modified_gmt":"2026-06-15T19:37:12","slug":"utah-supreme-court-nominee-faces-tough-questioning-about-his-residency","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/americanmovershub.com\/?p=1778","title":{"rendered":"Utah Supreme Court nominee faces tough questioning about his residency"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

A Utah Senate committee has endorsed two new nominees for the state Supreme Court, sending their nominations to the full Senate for a vote later this week.<\/p>\n

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The Utah Senate Judicial Confirmation Committee voted largely along party lines on Monday to approve the nominations of Jay Jorgensen and Stephen Dent to fill two brand-new seats on the high court.<\/p>\n

All Republicans on the panel supported the nominees, while the two Democrats opposed Jorgensen, citing concerns about whether he met the residency requirements to serve on the high court. One Democrat voted against Dent.<\/p>\n

Jorgensen, a senior attorney for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and former corporate attorney, pushed back on questions about his residency during Monday\u2019s hearing. He said he still met the state Constitution\u2019s requirements of living in the state for five years after a recent three-year church mission in Chile.<\/p>\n

Jorgensen said he moved back to Utah in 2020 after spending much of the prior two decades outside of the state. He then served as a Latter-day Saint mission president from 2022 to 2025 and said he accepted the job with the church before returning to the state.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt says the nominee to this position must have been a Utah resident for five years,\u201d Jorgensen said, pointing out that the Constitution doesn\u2019t require those years to be immediately preceding the nomination.<\/p>\n

Even if that were the case, Jorgensen argued that his years in Chile are not disqualifying because he always intended to return to Utah after his church service and still owned a home in Provo during the time.<\/p>\n

Both Democrats on the committee pressed Jorgensen over the issue and ultimately voted against his confirmation.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the most recent mission is in question, but even before that, Mr. Jorgensen spent \u2014 by my math, if it\u2019s not wrong \u2014 23 years working outside of Utah,\u201d said Sen. Stephanie Pitcher, D-Salt Lake City. \u201cI think it\u2019s important that we have individuals on the bench, especially the Supreme Court, that actually have lived in Utah and have practiced in Utah.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sen. Brady Brammer, R-Highland, defended Jorgensen and pushed back on the questions about his residency, saying the \u201ckey issue\u201d with residency and military or church service is \u201cnot necessarily where you\u2019re located\u201d but \u201cwhere you intend to return when you\u2019re done.\u201d He said he doesn\u2019t believe the Constitution intended to disqualify people for religious service.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI think the timing is very clear on this. The law is clear: it\u2019s five years,\u201d Brammer said. \u201cThis is one of the most qualified potential jurists we\u2019ve had apply in the history of the state of Utah. \u2026 I worry that the questions about residency are partisan under the pretext of residency and so I fully support this pick.\u201d<\/p>\n

Senators questioned Dent, a federal prosecutor in southern Utah, about the separation of powers between different branches of government and his philosophy on legal matters.<\/p>\n

\u201cAny case that comes before me, the law and the facts will be what guides me,\u201d Dent said.<\/p>\n

Like Jorgensen, Dent has no experience as a judge, but he said he had to wear \u201cmany hats\u201d as a prosecutor and believes that experience would transfer to the Supreme Court.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou wear a prosecutor hat and so you\u2019re looking to protect the community and to build your case, but you\u2019re also wearing the hat of a defense attorney,\u201d he said. \u201cYou\u2019re applying neutral principles and you\u2019re saying, \u2018We\u2019re not here just to send people to prison, we\u2019re here to seek justice.\u2019 And so I believe that level of neutrality and applying those neutral principles does help with the transition to the bench.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sen. Karen Kwan, D-West Valley City, voted against both nominees. She said she wasn\u2019t confident Jorgensen had spent enough recent time in the state to fully understand how the culture has changed. She did not publicly explain her reasons for opposing Dent\u2019s nomination.<\/p>\n

Monday\u2019s confirmation hearing was the second one held over several days. The nominees also answered questions from the Senate panel on Friday.<\/p>\n

The full Utah Senate is set to vote on the two nominees\u2019 appointments to the Supreme Court on Wednesday afternoon.<\/p>\n

Those are not the only open seats to be filled on the high court. Gov. Spencer Cox plans to announce two new appointees in the next few months to fill the seats held by Chief Justice Matthew Durrant, who is retiring, and Diana Hagen, who resigned last month.<\/p>\n

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A Utah Senate committee has endorsed two new nominees for the state Supreme Court, sending their nominations to the full Senate for a vote later this week.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1777,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1778","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-utah"],"yoast_head":"\nUtah Supreme Court nominee faces tough questioning about his residency - American Movers Hub<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/americanmovershub.com\/?p=1778\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Utah Supreme Court nominee faces tough questioning about his residency - 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