New Judicial Nominating Legislation Will Politicize Iowa’s Supreme an Appellate Courts.

On the last day of the 2019 legislative session, Gov. Reynold, as part of budget bill, SF638, signed legislation that changes Iowa’s 57-year old judicial nominating system.  This system, called the “gold standard for the entire United States,” (Dan Brown, Iowa Academy of Trial Lawyers, in an Article by James Q. Lynch in The Gazette on February 6, 2019), was put into place in a bipartisan manner by a constitutional amendment in 1969.

Previously, the governor appointed half of the members and licensed attorneys filled the other half of the commission that nominates appeals court judges and Supreme Court justices.  Now the Governor will appoint nine of the members. A slot for a member of the Supreme Court was also eliminated. Although this is a less aggressive change than the original GOP proposal, it is still a threat to judicial independence.

 In an April 27, 2019 interview with Iowa Public Radio (IPR) reporter, Katarina Sostaric, Representative Mary Wolfe, D-Clinton, said, “…it’s meant to ensure the Governor’s political appointees have control over the judicial nominating process.  ‘This is, in my opinion, an opportunistic power grab that does not belong in a budget bill…’”

In the same IPR interview, Todd Pritchard, D-Charles City, indicated that this raises issues about the constitutional separation of powers.  The Governor has created partisan influence that “erodes” checks and balances. An independent judiciary is necessary to avoid political influence over our individual rights and if our liberties are to be protected.

This change in the nominating process has come on the heels of court rulings on the right to abortion and redefining marriage. According to Chuck Hurley, vice president and chief counsel for The Family Leader and former chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, “Iowa has one of the most activist supreme courts in the country with rulings against law enforcement, a ruling ‘finding’ a right to abortion and redefining marriage all in direct defiance of your duly passed laws… Over time the bar elected more Democrats than Republicans to the commission regardless of which way Iowans were voting.” The Gazette. James Q Lynch Fri., May 10, 2019

However, this is not the case.  In the same May 10, 2019 article, the Gazette reported that an “analysis of the state’s judicial nomination commissions in February found Republicans now have a 2-1 advantage over Democrats on the commissions.  The statewide nominating commission…is 68 percent Republican and 31 percent Democratic.”

It is worth noting that the change is not considered desirable by a majority of Iowans. A February Des Moines Register/Mediacom Iowa Poll found Iowans preferred to keep the state’s current judicial selection system by a 21-point margin, with 54 percent favoring the current system, 33 percent favoring change, and 13 percent not sure.

A synopsis of the full judicial nominating process, that was established in a nonpartisan effort to ensure balance and avoid political influence in Iowa’s judicial system, can be found at the National Center for State Courts website: http://www.judicialselection.us/judicial_selection/methods/judicial_nominating_commissions.cfm?state=IA