Iowa Supreme Court

From Judgepedia

Iowa Supreme Court
Sitting justices
Marsha Ternus David Baker Mark Cady Michael Streit David Wiggins Daryl Hecht Brent Appel
Former justices
Iowa on Judgepedia

The Iowa Supreme Court is the constitutional head of the judicial branch of the state of Iowa. Justices are appointed by the governor from a list of nominees submitted by the State Judicial Nominating Commission. A justice serves an initial term of office that is one year after appointment and until January 1 following the next judicial retention election after expiration of such year. The regular term of office of justices retained at election is eight years. A justice must retire upon reaching the age of 72. The justices elect the chief justice.

Jurisdiction

In the Iowa Supreme Court, there is mandatory jurisdiction in civil, criminal, administrative agency, juvenile, disciplinary, certified questions from Federal courts and original proceeding cases.^[1]

Case load

In 2006, 984 mandatory cases and discretionary petitions were granted. This is an average of 109 cases per judge.^[2]

The court's justices

Selection of justices

In 1962, a constitutional amendment was presented to constituents of Iowa on merit selection, which the people did pass. This amendment applies to all appellate and district court justices. Judicial nominees are selected by nominating commissions, which the governor of the state then makes the appointment. One year after the appointment, the justice must stand for a retention vote. A mandatory judicial retirement age was set at 72 for judges appointed after July 1, 1965.^[3]

"Iowa judges may be removed in one of two ways:

• Judges may be impeached by a majority of the house of representatives and convicted by two thirds of the senate.
• The Iowa Judicial Qualifications Commission has the authority to investigate complaints of judicial misconduct and recommend to the supreme court that it retire, discipline, or remove a judge."^[4]

Qualifications

"In general, nominees for any judgeship except for judicial magistrates must be lawyers admitted to practice law in Iowa. Also, a nominee must be a resident of the state, district, or county to which they are nominated and must be of an age such that they can serve a full term of office before reaching age 72. Although the merit selection system governs the selection of all judges and magistrates, specific procedures vary somewhat depending on the type of judgeship." ^[3]

Current justices

Justice Jerry Larson attained senior status on the court with the end of his term as of May 2008.

Name	Appointed/Elected	Term expires	Appointing Governor	Governor's Party Affiliation
Chief Justice Marsha Ternus	1993	December 31, 2010	Terry E. Branstad	Republican
David Baker	2008	December 31, 2010	Chet Culver	Democrat
Mark Cady	1998	December 31, 2016	Terry E. Branstad	Republican
Michael Streit	2001	December 31, 2010	Tom Vilsack	Democrat
David Wiggins	2003	December 31, 2012	Tom Vilsack	Democrat
Daryl Hecht	2006	December 31, 2016	Tom Vilsack	Democrat
Brent Appel	2006	December 31, 2016	Tom Vilsack	Democrat

Chief justice

Marsha Ternus is the Chief Justice of the Iowa Supreme Court. She has served on the court since 1993; the members of the court selected her as chief justice in 2006. She is the first woman to serve as chief justice of Iowa's highest court. Her current term of office expires on December 31, 2010.

History of the court

In 1846, Iowa joined the United States.^[5] Following the constitution of the federal government, the powers of the government in Iowa were divided into the legislative branch, the executive branch, and the judicial branch. In the judicial branch, the General Assembly divided the state into four judicial districts, and Supreme court justices were to serve six year terms, while district judges were elected for five year terms. The Iowa Constitution of 1857 increased the judicial districts from four to 11, and allowed the General Assembly to reorganize districts after 1860 and every four years thereafter.^[6]

Question of gay marriage before the Court

Varnum v. Brien

In early December 2008, an attorney for a half dozen gay couples challenging Iowa’s same-sex marriage ban argued before the state supreme court that the law violates his clients’ constitutional rights.^[7] This case has been in the legal system for more than three years, and it could take a year or more for the Iowa Supreme Court to issue a ruling after hearing oral arguments.^[8].

On April 3, 2009, the Iowa Supreme Court ruled unanimously to overturn the State's ban on gay marriage (strikes the language from Iowa Code section 595.2) as Iowa became the first state in the Midwest in its ruling to fully recognize gay marriage^[9]. The Iowa Supreme Court unanimously upheld a lower-court ruling that rejected a state law restricting marriage to a union between a man and woman, saying it violates the constitutional rights of equal protection. The ruling upholds a August 30, 2007 ruling when the Polk County District Court issued a ruling determining the statute was unconstitutional under the due process and equal protection clauses of the Iowa Constitution. The district court initially ordered the county recorder to begin processing marriage licenses for same-sex couples, but stayed the order during the pendency of an appeal by the Polk County^[10].

Gay and lesbian couples may exchange vows as soon as April 24 following the landmark decision^[11].

The Iowa Supreme Court's ruling has some profound impacts to be seen with the current economic crisis in light that the decision to overturn the ban on gay marriage may see an economic boon as other states like Wisconsin and Illinois that ban gay marriage that it means businesses could see $160 million in new spending during the next three years, a UCLA study concluded^[12].

With Iowa being in close proximity to Wisconsin, Illinois, Minnesota, and Missouri means that Iowa could draw an estimated 55,000 out-of-state couples who spend money on weddings and tourism-related activities which was cited by the UCLA study^[12].

Advocates for same-sex marriage celebrated the ruling as a breakthrough for civil rights, while conservative critics called the ruling an attack on traditional marriage and said the court overstepped its authority^[12]. This recent ruling by the Iowa Supreme Court could set certain precedents as some states nearby Iowa are considering laws to have their law books recognize domestic partnerships while getting some states to have their highest courts trying to overturn bans on gay marriage that have been already been approved by the voters on the ballot and initiative process^[11].

Iowa's overturned ban could set precendents in other states with laws similar to Iowa. Indiana which has a law closely identical to Iowa's already has been challenged by three gay couples who were denied marriage licenses in Marion and Hendricks counties in Indiana. Those couples gave up their fight after the state law was upheld by the Indiana Court of Appeals in 2005 in which Indiana's intermediate appeals court found the law does not violate the state Constitution because the state has a legitimate interest in promoting heterosexual marriage to establish a stable environment for children^[11].

Attorney Camilla Taylor of Lambda Legal who led the challenge to the Iowa ban, said the group plans to work to overturn bans in other Midwestern states including Wisconsin^[11].

See also

• Iowa Court of Appeals
• Iowa judicial news
• Iowa Judicial Nominating and Qualifications Commission
• Judicial selection in Iowa
• Iowa blogs

External links

• Iowa Supreme Court Official Site
• Iowa Judicial Qualifications complaint procedure

References

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