Gov. Spencer Cox said he supports expanding the Utah Supreme Court from five to seven justices — something he had previously stopped short of committing to — and does not consider it to be “packing” the court in the aftermath of bitter disputes between the justices and the Legislature.

“It’s something that I do support,” Cox said during a news conference Tuesday. “I support getting more resources to the courts generally.”

That includes, he said, expanding the court of appeals and the district courts, as well, to speed up how long it takes for cases to make their way through the courts.

“We’re not the state we were 40 years ago. We’re not the state we were 20 years ago, from a size perspective,” Cox said. “There’s a reason most medium-sized states to larger states start to move to the seven-to-nine justice range.”

The expansion of Utah’s high court was originally proposed earlier this year after the court had dealt a series of defeats to Republican lawmakers — halting a law banning almost all abortions in the state and limiting the court’s ability to repeal citizen-passed ballot measures.