SALT LAKE CITY When Utah's Supreme Court upheld prayers at government meetings as a legacy of Utah's Mormon heritage, four of the five justices were Mormons.
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The latest appointments by Gov. Mike Leavitt underscore the dominance of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Utah affairs.
"Anybody who lives here knows where all the power is," says Matt Gilmore, 90, a lawyer who for many years was general counsel to the Utah Tax Commission.
"You got a Supreme Court that's all Mormon, a Legislature that's practically all Mormon, an executive department headed up by a Mormon and a Republican Party that's all Mormon."
That may not be surprising for a state founded by a church theocracy and still 70% Mormon. But Leavitt's two February appointments broke a tradition that dates from 1926 of having at least one non-Mormon on the high bench. It was in 1926 that territorial judges who were elected by popular vote began to retire.
Now, from local to federal courts in Utah, members of one faith overwhelmingly rule the bench.