Judge Hanson Will ‘Blast’ His Way Through Iowa’s Gay Marriage Controversy
Fair Courts E-lert
Bibliographic Info:
Author: Andrew Duffelmeyer
Source: Iowa Independent
Date: November 1, 2011
When voters ousted three Iowa Supreme Court justices over a controversial same-sex marriage ruling last year, it was the first time judges were removed in the history of the state’s use of retention elections. Court observers have expressed concern that the special-interest campaign in Iowa—which poured nearly a million dollars into Iowa to unseat the justices—represents the degree of special-interest threats to a fair and impartial judiciary. At a forum on Defending Iowa’s Courts last week, panelists claimed that the state’s judicial retention elections were misused to attack judges, and that politicians also misused the impeachment process by trying to remove four other justices from the state high court over the same controversial marriage ruling. The Iowa Independent reports that Iowa District Court Judge Robert Hanson, who issued the initial opinion in the same-sex marriage case, has been accepting invitations to discuss the controversial ruling and other issues before the court, in the hopes of educating the public about the judicial process. According to Judge Hanson, the retention election process in 2010 showed “what staying quiet gets you as a judge: it gets you a ticket right off the bench.”
See also: Andrew Duffelmeyer, Panelists: Judicial Retention, Impeachment Processes Misused, Iowa Independent, November 1, 2011.