Utah Court of Appeals Judge John D. Luthy will appear on the Nov. 3 general election ballot for a retention vote. Voters will decide a single yes-or-no question: whether to keep Luthy on the bench.

Retention races are nonpartisan. Gov. Spencer J. Cox appointed Luthy to the Utah Court of Appeals in October 2022, according to the Utah Courts official biography.

Sandy-area voters will see Luthy's name on their ballots alongside other statewide judicial retention questions, including those for Judge Gregory K. Orme and Judge David N. Mortensen, as the Sandy Herald also reported.

Candidate information

  • Name: John D. Luthy
  • Office: Utah Court of Appeals Judge
  • Appointed: October 2022 by Gov. Spencer J. Cox
  • Hometown: Cache Valley native, according to Utah Policy
  • Education: Bachelor's degree in political science and government, magna cum laude, Utah State University (1996); juris doctor, cum laude, J. Reuben Clark Law School at Brigham Young University (2000)

Experience and public service

Before joining the bench, Luthy built a career spanning judicial clerkships, private practice, legal education and county government, according to his Utah Courts biography and BallotReady profile data.

He began his legal career with three clerkships in the Utah court system. He served as a judicial law clerk for Court of Appeals Judge Gregory K. Orme from 2000 to 2002. He then clerked for Supreme Court Justice Richard C. Howe in 2002 and for Court of Appeals Judge Russell W. Bench in 2003.

After his clerkships, Luthy practiced as an attorney at Suitter Axland in Salt Lake City from 2003 to 2006. He then moved to South Carolina, where he served as an instructor of legal writing at the University of South Carolina from 2006 to 2014.

Luthy returned to Utah and joined Peck Hadfield Baxter & Moore as an attorney from 2014 to 2019. He then moved into public service in Cache County, serving as chief civil deputy county attorney from 2019 to 2021 and then as Cache County attorney from 2021 until his appointment to the appeals court in 2022.

Beyond those roles, Luthy served as president of the Cache County Bar Association and as an adjunct professor at Utah State University. He also taught as an adjunct instructor at the U.S. Department of Justice National Advocacy Center. He served on the executive committee of the Appellate Practice Section of the Utah State Bar.

On the issues

The Sandy Herald did not receive questionnaire responses from this candidate. This profile is based on publicly available records and reviewed profile data.