Iowa chief justice to speak on judicial selection and retention
March 20, 2012
Chief Justice Mark Cady of the Iowa Supreme Court will speak at an open meeting of the Ames League of Women Voters at 7 p.m. Thursday at the Northminster Presbyterian Church in Ames.
The topic of the speech is set as “Choosing and Keeping the Best Possible Judges.” Justice Cady will focus on the process of selecting and retaining judges in the Iowa judicial system, proposed changes to this system and their possible affects.
Cady’s chosen topic on selection and retention of Iowa judges may come from the November 2010 election results which resulted in three Iowa Supreme Court justices not being reappointed.
On Nov. 2, 2010, Iowa voters chose not to reappoint Iowa Supreme Court Chief Justice Marsha Ternus, Justice David Baker and Justice Michael Streit. This came after the Iowa Supreme Court decision in the Varnum v. Brien case found that an Iowa marriage statute, making gay marriage illegal, was unconstitutional.
The justices unanimously agreed that Iowa Code section 595.2 violated the equal protections clause of the Iowa Constitution. This clause, which is section six of the Iowa Bill of Rights, states, “the general assembly shall not grant to any citizen, or class of citizens, privileges or immunities, which, upon the same terms, shall not equally belong to all citizens.”
Justice Cady, who was the author of the case, said that the court’s responsibility was “to protect constitutional rights of individuals from legislative enactments that have denied those rights, even when the rights have not yet been broadly accepted, were at one time unimagined or challenge a deeply ingrained practice or law viewed to be impervious to the passage of time.”
Ternus, Baker and Streit were the only Iowa Supreme Court Justices to appear on the November 2010 ballot. There are seven judges on the Iowa Supreme Court at a time. Each Supreme Court justice must appear on the ballot every eight years, which decides if they will retain their position. The other five judges were not up for retention at the time.
Cady’s speech is open to the public.
