Constandinos Himonas

Constandinos Himonas (born 1964)[1] is an American lawyer and former judge who served as a justice of the Utah Supreme Court from 2015 to 2022.[2]

Constandinos Himonas
Justice of the Utah Supreme Court
In office
March 18, 2015 – March 1, 2022
Appointed byGary Herbert
Preceded byRonald E. Nehring
Succeeded byDiana Hagen
Personal details
Born1964 (age 58–59)
EducationUniversity of Utah (BA)
University of Chicago (JD)

Early life and education

Himonas is originally from Price, Utah and has Greek heritage. He graduated from the University of Utah in 1986 and received his Juris Doctor from the University of Chicago Law School in 1989.[3]

Prior to taking the bench, Himonas worked for 15 years at the law firm of Jones, Waldo, Holbrook & McDonough.[4] Prior to being confirmed to the Utah Supreme Court, Himonas served as a trial judge in the 3rd District Court.[3]

Utah Supreme Court

After being nominated by Governor Gary Herbert, he was unanimously confirmed by the Utah Senate to the position.[5] He resigned on March 1, 2022.[6]

Notable rulings and selected opinions

In re Gray and Rice

This opinion, authored by Justice Himonas, deals with the right of transgender individuals to change their legal sex designation on their birth certificates. This case was an appeal by two transgender individuals—Sean Childers-Gray, a transgender man, and Angie Rice, a transgender woman—who had petitioned the Utah District Court for the right to change both their name and sex designation on their birth certificate.[7] The District Court granted the name change but refused the sex change.[8] Justice Himonas, and a majority of the Utah Supreme Court ultimately found that "A person has a common-law right to change facets of their personal legal status, including their sex designation."[8] This decision rested upon the common-law right to change one's own name as well as a Utah statute that tied sex designation changes to name changes.

References
  1. 2019 Equal Justice Conference speaker bio
  2. "JUSTICE CONSTANDINOS HIMONAS". Utcourts.gov. Utah Supreme Court. Retrieved 25 February 2015.
  3. "Constandinos Himonas, '89, Nominated to Utah Supreme Court | University of Chicago Law School". www.law.uchicago.edu. Retrieved 2021-07-28.
  4. "CONSTANDINOS G. HIMONAS - Home - Faculty Profile - The University of Utah". faculty.utah.edu. Retrieved 2018-03-30.
  5. "Himonas unanimously confirmed to the Utah Supreme Court". Retrieved March 4, 2015.
  6. Miller, Jordan (October 29, 2021). "Utah Supreme Court Justice Deno Himonas retires, plans return to private sector". The Salt Lake Tribune. Retrieved March 7, 2022.
  7. "Utah Supreme Court considers plight of two transgender people who want their IDs to reflect their 'actual reality'". The Salt Lake Tribune. Retrieved 2021-12-02.
  8. "In re Gray and Rice, 2021 UT 13" (PDF). Utah Courts. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2021-05-06.



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