Largely overlooked in the spate of reports on the recent election was the defeat in a retention election of David Baker, Michael Streit, and Marsha Ternus, three Justices on the Iowa Supreme Court.\u00a0 They had previously joined the majority in ruling that Iowa\u2019s ban on same sex-marriage violated the state\u2019s equal protection guarantees.\u00a0 As a result of that ruling, Iowa became the only state in the Midwest to allow same-sex marriage.\u00a0 This was important not only for gay and lesbian couples in Iowa but also in nearby states.\u00a0 A majority of same-sex marriages in Iowa during the past year involved couples from Illinois, Minnesota, and Wisconsin.<\/p>\n
One key to the election results was the money that was spent in Iowa by national groups opposed to same-sex marriage, and Iowa opponents of same-sex marriage welcomed the spending and surely delighted in the Iowa returns.\u00a0 Bob Vander Plaats, a leader of pro-removal campaign said, \u201cIt\u2019s the people rising up, and having a voice for freedom, and holding an out-of-control court in check.\u201d \u00a0<\/p>\n
The claim that courts had become politicized and that this development had led to rulings in favor of same-sex marriage has been heard before.\u00a0 When President George Bush called for an amendment to the United States Constitution banning same-sex marriage, he, too, claimed politicized judges were threatening to undermine the sacred institution of marriage.<\/p>\n
But there\u2019s an irony in these claims, at least as far as the Iowa retention election is concerned.\u00a0 Those lobbying and spending in order to knock Justices Baker, Streit, and Ternus out of office admitted they were politically motivated.\u00a0 They did not want gay men and lesbians to be married.\u00a0 Those who stood for the rule of law, meanwhile, were the Justices.\u00a0 In a joint statement issued the day after their defeat the three Justices said:\u00a0 \u201cThroughout our judicial service we endeavored to serve the people of Iowa by always adhering to the rule of law, making decisions fairly and impartially according to the law of Iowa, and faithfully upholding the Iowa Constitution.\u00a0 We wish to thank all Iowans who voted to retain us.\u00a0 Your support shows than many Iowans value fair and impartial courts.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Largely overlooked in the spate of reports on the recent election was the defeat in a retention election of David Baker, Michael Streit, and Marsha Ternus, three Justices on the Iowa Supreme Court.\u00a0 They had previously joined the majority in ruling that Iowa\u2019s ban on same sex-marriage violated the state\u2019s equal protection guarantees.\u00a0 As a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ocean_post_layout":"","ocean_both_sidebars_style":"","ocean_both_sidebars_content_width":0,"ocean_both_sidebars_sidebars_width":0,"ocean_sidebar":"","ocean_second_sidebar":"","ocean_disable_margins":"enable","ocean_add_body_class":"","ocean_shortcode_before_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_after_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_before_header":"","ocean_shortcode_after_header":"","ocean_has_shortcode":"","ocean_shortcode_after_title":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_bottom":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_bottom":"","ocean_display_top_bar":"default","ocean_display_header":"default","ocean_header_style":"","ocean_center_header_left_menu":"","ocean_custom_header_template":"","ocean_custom_logo":0,"ocean_custom_retina_logo":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_height":0,"ocean_header_custom_menu":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_family":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_subset":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_size":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_unit":"px","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_line_height":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_unit":"","ocean_menu_typo_spacing":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_unit":"","ocean_menu_link_color":"","ocean_menu_link_color_hover":"","ocean_menu_link_color_active":"","ocean_menu_link_background":"","ocean_menu_link_hover_background":"","ocean_menu_link_active_background":"","ocean_menu_social_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_links_color":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_color":"","ocean_disable_title":"default","ocean_disable_heading":"default","ocean_post_title":"","ocean_post_subheading":"","ocean_post_title_style":"","ocean_post_title_background_color":"","ocean_post_title_background":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_image_position":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_attachment":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_repeat":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_size":"","ocean_post_title_height":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay":0.5,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay_color":"","ocean_disable_breadcrumbs":"default","ocean_breadcrumbs_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_separator_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_hover_color":"","ocean_display_footer_widgets":"default","ocean_display_footer_bottom":"default","ocean_custom_footer_template":"","ocean_post_oembed":"","ocean_post_self_hosted_media":"","ocean_post_video_embed":"","ocean_link_format":"","ocean_link_format_target":"self","ocean_quote_format":"","ocean_quote_format_link":"post","ocean_gallery_link_images":"on","ocean_gallery_id":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[68],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12198","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-judges-judicial-process","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12198","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12198"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12198\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12198"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12198"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12198"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}