Ronald E. Nehring, the first Utah Supreme Court justice who was not a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, died Friday from complications connected to radiation treatments he received years earlier to treat cancer. He was 71.
Nehring served on Utah’s high court from 2003 to 2014, writing opinions on such hot-button issues as gun rights and whether life begins at conception. He did that job, his family said, with humility and humor.
His older daughter, Jesse Nehring, said that a lawyer arguing before the court once kept repeating the word “abide.” “The lawyer was saying ‘abide this’ and ‘abide that,’" she said.