The most surprising thing about the news that a female Utah Supreme Court justice was allegedly having an affair with an attorney who had represented a leftist organization in a case before her is that the leftists allowed a straight white male to represent them. Who knows? Maybe it’s just in Utah.
According to the Salt Lake Tribune, Justice Diana Hagen resigned from the Utah Supreme Court on May 8 in the midst of controversy over allegations that she “had an improper relationship with an attorney with a case before the high court.”
In 2024, the Utah legislature was considering amending the state constitution in such a way that would have granted lawmakers the ability to repeal ballot initiatives that the citizens had already passed. In League of Women Voters v. Utah State Legislature, Hagen wrote the unanimous opinion that detailed why the high court voided this ballot initiative measure from the 2024 ballot.
In her opinion, Hagen wrote that the language on the ballot was misleading, and that the Utah legislature did not comply with certain constitutional requirements.
The Tribune reported that an attorney in that case, representing the League of Women Voters, was David Reymann.
“It was Reymann — who is also a plaintiffs’ attorney in the state’s long-running redistricting case — with whom Hagen allegedly had an inappropriate relationship, although the claim was based solely on accusations Hagen’s ex-husband made to an attorney who filed the complaint with the JCC (Judicial Conduct Commission).”
🚨THE GOP MIGHT GET THAT HOUSE SEAT BACK IN UTAH! 🚨
— Ben Hart (@BenHart_Freedom) May 9, 2026
Utah Supreme Court Justice Diana Hagen was the deciding swing vote to require Utah to redraw its Congressional district map to award Dems an extra House seat.
Now she's had to resign in the wake of allegations that she's been… pic.twitter.com/T69EFU7IMB
Hagen’s was a key vote in another pivotal redistricting case before the Utah Supreme Court that ultimately gave the Democrats an extra seat in the House.
According to the Associated Press (AP), “David Reymann, an attorney for the voting rights advocates who challenged the (existing) map, called the ruling a ‘watershed moment’ for the voices of Utah voters.”
“The Legislature in this state is not king,” Reymann was quoted as telling a group of reporters at the time.
Karma being what it is, Hagen submitted her resignation to Utah Gov. Spencer Cox (R), writing, “For the last three decades, I have worked to earn a reputation for professionalism, fairness, and integrity. Throughout my career as a prosecutor and over the last nine years on the bench, I have faithfully upheld my oath to the constitution and the ethical obligations that govern our profession.”
She added that her family and friends “did not choose public life,” and “they do not deserve to have intensely personal details surrounding the painful dissolution of my thirty-year marriage subjected to public scrutiny.”
That’s not good.
Hagen made it clear her resignation was a reluctant one, but she recognized that it would not have been possible to continue serving on the court “without sacrificing the privacy and well-being of those I care about and the effective functioning and independence of Utah’s judiciary.”
Justice Hagen's letter of resignation. In it she says her family and friends don't deserve to have personal details surrounding her divorce subjected to public scrutiny and she cannot remain on the bench "without sacrificing the privacy and well-being of those I care about." pic.twitter.com/ir8ksAlAYm
— Robert Gehrke (@RobertGehrke) May 8, 2026
Cox, Utah House Speaker Mike Schultz, and Senate President J. Stuart Adams revealed in April that they had launched an investigation into allegations that Hagen had an “improper relationship” with someone who had a case before the court.
Separately, the JCC considered the allegations and dismissed them on grounds that the allegations were “misleading.” That wasn’t enough, however, to put an end to the Republican-led investigation in the legislature.
As that investigation moved forward, more and more uncomfortable questions emerged about that alleged relationship, and the potential that it could have impacted case outcomes.
Cox, Schultz, Adams and Chief Justice Matthew Drurrant issued a joint statement after Hagen's resignation that said the branches of government they represent “are committed to working together on potential reforms to the Judicial Conduct Commission — ensuring it upholds the highest standards of accountability and earns the confidence of the people of Utah.”
As Hagen pretty much said in her resignation letter, she didn’t want to air her dirty laundry in an attempt to keep her job, and that’s what would have happened had the investigation continued. After she resigned, Cox and the other Republican leaders said the public investigation would no longer continue, enabling the disgraced justice to deal with the fallout of her situation in private.
Hagen’s resignation does not necessarily mean that the court’s decision on redistricting will change. In February, the high court issued an order on the congressional map that was signed by a three-justice panel where Hagen was not involved. The actual “redraw” of the map came down from Third District Judge Dianna Gibson, and federal court later upheld that.
All of this means it will be difficult to simply revert back to the map that existed before the Supreme Court heard the case.
As for the nature of that alleged “improper relationship,” who knows? There is a lot of he-said-she-said going on, which is not to say they didn’t have a relationship. Rather, the debate appears mostly to do with timing, and whether any relationship Hagen may have had could have affected court cases.
The big question going forward is what Republicans can do, if anything, about redistricting before the midterms. That has yet to be clarified.
Anytime you see a story like this, you have to wonder, “What were they thinking?” They know right from wrong. We’re talking about a state Supreme Court justice and a lawyer. But that’s the problem. Sometimes people get a little too overconfident, and they make sloppy and tremendously damaging decisions in their personal lives. Arrogance often drives some of the dumbest things very smart people do. That arrogance that becomes their undoing.
All we can do now is hope the Republicans can salvage a seat or two in Congress in Utah, if that’s possible.
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