Utah Supreme Court Reschedules Oral Argument in Petito v. Moab City Police Department Following Court Expansion

Oral argument will be rescheduled to allow a full seven-justice panel to hear related constitutional challenges together.

SALT LAKE CITY, UT, UNITED STATES, March 3, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ -- The Utah Supreme Court has granted a joint motion by the parties in Petito v. Moab City Police Department, Supreme Court Case No. 20241368-SC, to continue and reschedule the previously set March 4, 2026, oral argument in light of recent structural changes to the Court and its procedures for hearing constitutional challenges.

Earlier this year, the Utah Legislature enacted Senate Bill 134, expanding the Utah Supreme Court from five to seven justices. Following that legislation, the Court issued a temporary standing order providing that in any appeal involving a constitutional challenge to a statute, the Court will sit as a full seven-member court, calling replacement judges as needed.

In response to these developments, the parties in Petito v. Moab City Police Department (No. 20241368-SC) and Mayne v. Salt Lake City Police Department moved the Court to ensure that oral argument in the two cases will be heard on the same day.

Both cases arise from tragic wrongful deaths and present the same central constitutional question: whether Utah’s Governmental Immunity Act is unconstitutional as applied to wrongful death claims under Article XVI, Section 5 of the Utah Constitution, including whether the Court should reconsider its prior decision in Tiede v. State.

The parties requested coordinated scheduling so that this shared constitutional issue will be argued and decided by a single, consistent seven-justice panel, rather than by different combinations of permanent and temporary justices at separate times. The motion emphasized that such coordination promotes consistency, judicial economy, and the integrity of the Court’s constitutional adjudication.

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