Which iowa judges voted for gay marriage

The lawsuit went to the Polk County District Court in , and Judge Robert Hanson ruled that denying same-sex couples marriage licenses was unconstitutional. An appeal on behalf of Polk County sent the case, Varnum v. Brien, to the Iowa Supreme Court. The court received 24 amicus curiae briefs—documents drafted by lawyers in support of one party.

After hearing the oral arguments, the court was able to make an immediate decision. We thought there would be someone in our group would have opposed. After discussing the best course of action, Streit, Ternus and Baker decided not to fundraise to stay on the court.

Ultimately, the three justices were voted out of their seats on Nov. This marked the first instance of an Iowa Supreme Court justice not retaining his or her seat since the retention system was adopted in Ternus compared this removal to any other job loss and said she did not regret the court ruling.

Neither justice believes the U. Supreme Court will rule unanimously in either case, but both are optimistic it will consider the same equal rights and due process factors as the Iowa ruling. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

In two separate rulings issued on May 17, , the Iowa Supreme Court upheld a law that amended collective bargaining rights for the state's public-sector workforce. The court ruled in the state's favor in both cases. In , then-Gov. Terry Branstad R signed into law a series of amendments to Iowa's public-sector labor relations law. As a result, collective bargaining units with less than 30 percent public-safety personnel defined generally as firefighters and police officers were barred from negotiating insurance, hours, vacations, holidays, overtime, and health and safety issues unless their employers elected to do so.

Collective bargaining units exceeding the percent threshold were exempted from these restrictions. Both cases were filed in state district courts, which ruled against the plaintiffs. The plaintiffs appealed these decisions to the state supreme court. In each case, the court ruled in the state's favor. In the majority opinion covering both cases, Justice Thomas Waterman wrote: "The amendments do not infringe on a fundamental right of association. The plaintiffs 'come to us with a problem suitable only for political solution.

The plaintiffs otherwise must look to the ballot box and the elected branches to change this lawfully enacted statute. In his dissent, Cady wrote: "[The] Iowa statute ends up treating many similarly situated public employees in Iowa differently based solely on the bargaining unit they belong to and not for the reason the constitution would justify different treatment of public employees. Our constitution requires laws to treat similarly situated people equally unless there is an adequate reason otherwise.

In this case, the overinclusiveness and underinclusiveness written into the statute drowned this reason out. On April 27, , the Iowa Supreme Court ruled that the state transportation department cannot regulate traffic cameras without specific authorization from the legislature. The three cities had all installed traffic cameras on their portions of interstate and other primary highways. In , the state transportation department ordered the cities to turn off some of those cameras, and the cities sued.

Writing for the court, Justice Edward Mansfield wrote that agencies are "not free to interpret the general rulemaking authority as granting unlimited rulemaking authority.

Justice Daryl Hecht did not take part in deciding the case. According to a ruling issued on February 15 by the Iowa Supreme Court , farmers who choose to host educational tours for members of the public are not shielded from liability by a state law intended to promote recreation on private lands. Sallee had served as a chaperone on her daughter's kindergarten class trip to the Stewarts' farm, and broke her wrist and her leg when she fell through a hole in the floor of a hayloft where the Stewarts were letting the children play.

The hole had been covered by hay bales, which Matthew Stewart had tested before the children arrived, but the bale over the drop gave way when Sallee stood on it. In the supreme court's holding, Justice Brent Appel agreed that Iowa's law is intended to promote outdoor activities, and wrote that horseback riding and nature study, which the students engaged in at the Stewarts' farm, may have been covered by the law.

However, he wrote that. In dissent, Justice Edward Mansfield wrote that the law was designed from its inception to encourage farmers to offer access to and recreational use of their lands. He wrote that the court's decision "turns [the] law upside down. On April 3, , the Iowa Supreme Court ruled unanimously to overturn the state's ban on gay marriage striking the language from Iowa Code section With this ruling, Iowa became the first state in the Midwest to fully recognize gay marriage.

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. About a year after the rulings, data from the Iowa Department of Public Health said that there were 2, recorded marriages of same-sex couples in Iowa between April 27, , and March 31, In the Iowa Supreme Court's first decision, they found that an enslaved person residing in the territory of Iowa could not be returned to a slave owner across state lines in Missouri even if they had not paid the agreed-upon amount to secure their freedom in the negotiated time.

This ruling came long before the Dred Scott v. Sandford case , which found in favor of the slave holder, and not the slave. In , Iowa joined the United States. As with the U. Constitution, the state constitution divided the powers of government into the legislative, executive, and judicial branches. The General Assembly divided the state into four judicial districts, with supreme court justices serving six-year terms and district judges elected for five-year terms.

The Iowa Constitution of increased the number of judicial districts to 11 and allowed the General Assembly to reorganize districts every four years after The Iowa Code of Judicial Conduct sets forth ethical guidelines and principles for the conduct of judges and judicial candidates in Iowa.

It consists of four overarching canons:. The full text of the Iowa Code of Judicial Conduct can be found here. Judges in Iowa may be removed in one of two ways:. In addition to the federal courts in Iowa, there are two types of appellate courts and one general jurisdiction trial court.

Their infrastructure and relationship are illustrated in the flow chart below. Iowa has a Republican trifecta. The Republican Party controls the office of governor and both chambers of the state legislature.

Ballotpedia features , encyclopedic articles written and curated by our professional staff of editors, writers, and researchers. Click here to contact our editorial staff, and click here to report an error. Click here to contact us for media inquiries, and please donate here to support our continued expansion. Share this page Follow Ballotpedia. What's on your ballot? Jump to: navigation , search. Jurisdiction All appeals in Iowa go first to the state supreme court, which then decides to take on the appeal or send it down to the Iowa Court of Appeals.

Elections and appointments In Iowa, judges are appointed by the governor. Judges with expiring terms This is a list of the justices who had to stand for retention election in in order to remain on the bench.

Iowa, like many states, uses a merit system to choose judges, meaning they are chosen by the governor and subject to voter approval every few years for retention. The system is the same for justices on district courts, juvenile courts, the Supreme Court and Court of Appeals. Other states -- like Wisconsin, where political spending on Supreme Court seats has set record levels in recent years — use partisan elections.

Rick Santorum, a presidential candidate, and Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal joined. But the legal community also acted — in defense of Wiggins, against the outside intervention and in favor of a neutral court. Cady went on a speaking tour to talk about the dangers of political pressure influencing the bench.

He also got the court to start traveling to different locations to hold oral arguments. He blamed them not only for foisting gay marriage on the state but allowing Planned Parenthood to use a telemedicine system to provide abortion pills in rural clinics.

Justice Not Politics released a survey in September that found 41 percent of likely Iowa voters support retaining the high-ranked justices up for retention this year, while 16 percent opposed them. The rest were undecided or declined to take a position. The poll by Washington-based Lake Research Partners had a margin of error of 4. Both Baker and Ternus say Iowans have said nothing but positive things since Varnum — at least to their faces.

So he decided to use his lawyer and judge skills on mediation work. Lee Rood's Reader's Watchdog column helps Iowans get answers and accountability from public officials, the justice system, businesses and nonprofits.