The Iowa Legislature passed a bill last week before the end of its session limiting the powers of the state attorney general.

Republicans control both houses of the state legislature. Rep. Gary Worthan, R-Storm Lake, cited longtime Democratic Attorney General Tom Miller’s actions joining interstate lawsuits against the Trump administration as a reason for the legislation, saying it goes against the will of Iowa voters. Worthan said Miller’s lawsuits are political.

President Donald Trump won Iowa in 2016 by a margin of 9.5 percent, and Miller was re-elected in 2018 by a margin of 54 percent, winning 77-23.

“It’s political because this attorney general has taken part in out-of-state suits that are completely contrary to actions by the Legislature that were signed by the governor,” Worthan said. “The governor and the Legislature set the agenda for the state of Iowa –– not the attorney general.”

Should Gov. Kim Reynolds sign this bill, moving forward any future state attorneys general would have to seek approval of the governor, General Assembly or the Executive Council in order to prosecute non-Iowa lawsuits.

Reynolds has not said whether she supports this legislation or if she would sign it.

After Democrats won the races for attorney general and governor in Wisconsin in the 2018 midterm elections, the Republican-controlled legislature passed bills limiting the powers of those offices in a lame-duck session that outgoing Republican Gov. Scott Walker signed.

These laws restrict how the governor and attorney general can file lawsuits, among other things. They are currently stayed on appeal and the state Supreme Court will hear arguments on the issue May 15.

Dirk Deam, senior lecturer in political science at Iowa State, said this is a demagogic approach by Republicans trying to win votes by getting their base stirred up and said this legislation was similar to the removal of the Iowa Supreme Court justices in the wake of the Varnum v. Brien decision legalizing same-sex marriage statewide.

“Maybe they think that this is actually substantively important that somehow we should not have gay marriage in this state, but you have a real problem because there’s not a right to gay marriage, there’s an equal protection clause,” said Deam. “What they’re basically doing, and this happened in California you may be aware about, is to try to get the people to override equal protection principles in their state and that’s a serious rule of law problem … when the rule of law depends on the ruling party and the way that they can animate political passions.”

Miller did not rule out the possibility of a lawsuit to fight this restriction of his office’s powers should the Iowa legislation be signed by the governor.

Deam said the outcome of any lawsuit would depend on the provisions of the state constitution or established precedent in case law.

“State constitutions are different from the federal constitution, they have specific provisions in them so it may create some framework of jurisdiction for the state attorney general,” Deam said. “It might give some legal framework for the attorney general, it’s also possible that there has been case law that has said that this kind of thing is improper under certain circumstances.”