Utah Court of Appeals Judge John D. Luthy will appear on Millcreek-area ballots Nov. 3 for a nonpartisan retention vote. Voters will decide whether to keep Luthy on the bench.
Governor Spencer J. Cox appointed Luthy to the Court of Appeals in October 2022, according to the Utah Courts official biography. Luthy is a Cache Valley native, according to Utah Policy.
He is not the only judge on the ballot. In a separate Millcreek Times profile, Judge Gregory Orme also faces a retention vote Nov. 3.
In a retention election, voters answer "yes" or "no" on whether to keep a sitting judge. There is no opposing candidate.
Candidate information
- Name: John D. Luthy
- Office: Utah Court of Appeals judge
- Race: Retain Luthy? (Yes/No), nonpartisan
- Election date: Nov. 3, 2026
- Appointed: October 2022 by Gov. Spencer J. Cox
- From: Cache Valley, Utah
- 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 his appointment to the bench, Luthy built a career spanning clerkships, private practice, teaching and county government.
He began as a judicial law clerk for Utah Court of Appeals Judge Gregory K. Orme from 2000 to 2002, according to BallotReady profile data. He then clerked for Utah Supreme Court Justice Richard C. Howe in 2002 and for Utah Court of Appeals Judge Russell W. Bench in 2003.
Luthy worked as an attorney at Suitter Axland from 2003 to 2006, then spent eight years as an instructor of legal writing at the University of South Carolina from 2006 to 2014, according to BallotReady. He returned to Utah and joined Peck Hadfield Baxter & Moore as an attorney from 2014 to 2019.
In Cache County, Luthy served as chief civil deputy county attorney from 2019 to 2021 and then as county attorney from 2021 to 2022, according to BallotReady.
Luthy also served as president of the Cache County Bar Association, as an adjunct instructor at the U.S. Department of Justice National Advocacy Center, as an adjunct professor at Utah State University and as an executive committee member of the Utah State Bar's Appellate Practice Section, according to his Utah Courts biography.
This profile was built from publicly available candidate information reviewed by Millcreek Times producers. No candidate questionnaire responses were available for this race. Voters can find additional judicial performance information through the Utah Judicial Performance Evaluation Commission.
