WEST DES MOINES — Bob Vander Plaats, head of Iowa For Freedom, said Tuesday the Iowa Supreme Court discriminated against polygamists or people who wish to “marry their child” in their opinion in Varnum v. Brien — the case which overturned a ban on same-sex marriage in Iowa.

Vander Plaats, head of Iowa For Freedom, went head-to-head with former Iowa Supreme Court Justices Mark McCormick and Robert Allbee in a forum in West Des Moines discussing the retention vote co-hosted by Simpson College and the Iowa Independent.

“If it’s about civil rights, why stop there?” Vander Plaats asked, in response to the justices declaring the Varnum case was about civil rights at its roots.

The justices argued Vander Plaats’ campaign was an effort to make a court that is supposed to make the unpopular decisions more subservient to a “mob” that may vote them out in the next retention vote.

“This isn’t about the mob, this is about we the people,” Vander Plaats said.

He later said it was not simply about defending marriage, it was about defending liberty.

“That’s why we’re named Iowa For Freedom, not Iowa For Marriage,” he said.

Vander Plaats said the Varnum decision starts a slippery slope toward allowing the court to take away property rights and 2nd Amendment rights.

The justices countered that Iowa’s high court is known for its impartiality and had a record of supporting property rights. They also noted the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, typically a Republican supporting group, ranking Iowa’s judicial system as fourth and fifth in the nation in terms of fairness and impartiality.

Davenport attorney Nathan Tucker, who also joined the panel, rattled off a list of donors to campaigns formed to protect the three Iowa Supreme Court justices up for retention on Nov. 2, claiming they largely included registered Democrats, to which Allbee questioned where he got that information.

“I don’t believe that’s a fact, I think that’s made up,” Allbee said.

Tucker stayed silent through much of the 90-minute debate, but alleged the commission that nominates justices to the Iowa Supreme Court was full of registered Democrats, and said the system needed to be replaced by one similar to that at the federal level.

McCormick contended that when he served on the commission to the court during the Branstad administration, he never knew the political affiliations of any other member on the commission nor did he see any partisan behaviors.

Allbee said a federal-level styled system would not work on a practical level because the legislative branch of Iowa only meets in the first few months of the year, so gathering the Iowa Senate for consideration and a vote would be difficult.

The panelists debated the outcome of Iowa For Freedom’s efforts, with the justices declaring it’s an attempt to intimidate justices in Iowa and elsewhere from making unpopular decisions, while Vander Plaats said it would show the people of Iowa they will hold judges accountable to the Constitution.

Allbee took a shot at Vander Plaats, a failed three-time candidate for the Republican gubernatorial nomination, when he said the success of the campaign against retention “may be just another referendum on Mr. Vander Plaats — he’s had three already.”

Vander Plaats was asked how he felt about the Citizens United ruling by the Supreme Court in 2010, which overturned decades of precedent. He responded he would not discuss other cases, although he mentioned judges in Arizona and California overturning acts of the legislature and of votes to amend their state constitutions several times.

Throughout the debate, various audience members at the West Des Moines satellite campus of Simpson College made comments and grunts in agreement and in disagreement for both sides.

The Des Moines Register’s latest poll put the retention vote as a toss-up, with 44 percent of likely voters saying they will vote to retain all three and 40 percent said they’d vote against the three.

McCormick told the Iowa State Daily he sees the out-of-state money from groups like the American Family Association and the National Organization for Marriage as a significant issue concerning the campaign Vander Plaats leads.

“The threat to our judicial system, I think, is the organization effort to oust judges based on an unpopular decision,” McCormick said.

State disclosure reports show the American Family Association changed its name for its operations in the state to Iowa For Freedom.

Several groups have formed to campaign against Iowa For Freedom, one being the Fair Courts for Us committee which features former three-term Republican governor Robert Ray, former Iowa first lady Christie Vilsack and Republican Sioux City-based attorney Dan Moore, also the former treasurer/secretary of Vander Plaats’ campaigns for governor in 2002 and 2006. They launched radio ads last week and will engage in a mail campaign.

“I wish the group that Bob Ray is in had been formed a long time ago,” McCormick said.

Vander Plaats dismissed the groups supporting the justices as the “ruling class” bonding together.

When Vander Plaats was asked what represents victory, he said “the forum itself” on Tuesday, having a debate about whether the court went too far.

Vander Plaats believed Terry Branstad will be elected in 2010 and vowed to remain active on this issue.

“I probably will encourage him to look at the executive order to hold the Court in check,” Vander Plaats told the Iowa State Daily after the forum.

McCormick dismissed the idea of an executive order to halt what the state Supreme Court ruled, he said it was not within the governor’s powers.