By Craig Robinson Eighty or so Republican operatives, former office holders or candidates, and government officials have signed an amicus brief in the U.S. Supreme Court case regarding the constitutionality of the federal Defense of Marriage Act and California’s ban on marriage. The brief argues that gay people have a constitutional right to marry based [...]
By Bob Vander Plaats There have been several points raised in a number of newspaper editorials in support of the retention of Iowa Supreme Court Justice David Wiggins that are highly misleading. The Register recently ran an editorial citing Clark v. Board of Directors of the Muscatine Schools, an 1868 case in which the Iowa [...]
By Nathan Tucker In what can charitably be described as an act of political expediency, Iowa’s most conservative member of Congress embraced an activist decision by the U.S. Supreme Court as “constitutional” and encouraged those who thought otherwise to do something “constructive.” At their fifth and final debate, Democrat Christie Vilsack challenged Congressman Steve King [...]
By Nathan Tucker In the debate over the upcoming judicial retention vote in Iowa, defenders of Justice Wiggins argue that his judicial career shouldn’t be decided solely by his vote legalizing gay marriage in Varnum. Instead, they want “a broader legal case against Wiggins…that [digs] into other aspects of his 10 years on the court [...]
By Brian Kennedy In the wake of the Supreme Court’s ruling on Obamacare, we have witnessed a historic act of political dexterity. After promising the American people that the individual mandate was not a tax, President Obama argued to the Supreme Court that it was precisely that. He won that argument. Now what does he [...]
Written by Bob Haus Today, the Supreme Court struck down major portions of Arizona’s controversial immigration law. My post today is not meant to argue the merits of that law, #SB1070, but to highlight what I think was a brilliant strategic stroke by the Supreme Court in the timing of its decision. For the past [...]
By Nathan Tucker In remarks at Drake Law School’s inaugural Iowa Constitution Lecture Series in March, the Chief Justice of the Iowa Supreme Court made the remarkable assertion that he is Mr. Constitution, literally. Proclaiming that our “Iowa Constitution has always been a living constitution,” Chief Justice Cady assigned to the Court the role of [...]