It's no secret the GOP-dominated Utah Legislature has been frustrated to tears by the Utah Supreme Court -- a court where four of the five justices were appointed more than 15 years ago by Democratic Gov. Scott Matheson.
By early next year, lawmakers may get some respite when Gov. Mike Leavitt appoints two new justices to the court.I. Daniel Stewart, one of Utah's most colorful and outspoken magistrates, announced he is stepping down from the Utah Supreme Court. That comes weeks after Justice Michael Zimmerman, also a Matheson appointee, announced his resignation.
Leavitt appointed Leonard H. Russon to the court in 1994, and the chance to appoint two more justices means three of the five justices on next year's court will have been appointed by Leavitt.
It will also mark the first time in many decades that a majority of justices were appointed by a Republican.
Stewart, 66, was appointed to the high court in 1979 and since that time has written more than 530 majority opinions, as well as 300 dissenting and concurring opinions.
He submitted his resignation to Leavitt last Friday. The resignation takes effect Jan. 17.
Stewart has been one of the more controversial members of the court, often alone in the minority and sometimes siding with Justice Christine Durham, also a Matheson appointee.
Stewart's passionate dissents are legendary, and they often targeted his colleagues on the Utah Supreme Court.
Just last June, Stewart dissented in a case involving the state's insanity defense law, writing that never before had the high court wandered so far from the "fundamental constitutional precepts" established in state and federal constitutions.
In an earlier ruling on the same issue, he called limits on the use of the insanity defense "moral nonsense."
He once chastised his colleagues for a ruling upholding the dismissal of a civil case because attorneys were late in answering certain questions.
"Punishing a hapless, innocent client for his attorney's crime of being a day late in answering interrogatories will, I believe, evoke a sense of utter disillusionment with our sense of judicial fairness," he wrote.
In an example of Stewart's colorful prose, he called a decision "pure sophistry" and compared it to killing an ant with a sledgehammer. "If a sledgehammer is to be used to kill an ant, at least the right ant ought to be smashed," he wrote.
In the past couple of years, Stewart dissented in a highly publicized case dismissing a lawsuit against the University of Utah Medical Center Fertility Clinic, calling the majority opinion "unrealistic."
He also clashed swords with his colleagues over a ruling involving the liability of businesses in cases where employees are assaulted. He targeted Chief Justice Michael D. Zimmerman's majority opinion, arguing Zimmerman's reasoning was that "a man sued for rape could reduce his liability for the injury he caused because the woman invited the rape by her failure to take reasonable precautions for her own safety."
Although his dissents were legendary, there were occasions when Stewart was in the majority. He wrote the unanimous Supreme Court decision that a law designed to punish those who supply alcohol to drunken drivers cannot be used in lawsuits filed by the families of the drinkers themselves.
And he wrote the opinion that private hosts who serve liquor at their parties can be held liable for injuries caused by their drunken guests.
Stewart left his business-law practice at Salt Lake City law firm Jones, Waldo, Holbrook and McDonough to join the high court in 1979. He had previously taught constitutional law at the University of Utah law school, where he graduated at the top of his class in 1962.
He also served in the U.S. Justice Department as an appellate attorney in the anti-trust division.
He served three terms as associate chief justice and was named Appellate Court Judge of the Year in 1986 by the Utah State Bar.
Stewart is married to psychologist and lawyer Elizabeth B. Stewart, and their daughters, Elizabeth Ann Whitney and Shannon Stewart Clark, are also members of the Utah State Bar.
Stewart is most recognizable in the court building for his use of a wheelchair, something he has used since he contracted polio at 23 while on a Mormon mission in West Germany.