All Iowans Benefit from Justice Wiggins Retention (Blog)

Here's why.

Iowa operates under "the Missouri Plan." This means voters get to vote from time to time on whether to "retain" Iowa's Supreme Court justices.

This year Justice David Wiggins is on the ballot. His opponents attack, not his long record of judicial service or his competence, but the outcome in one decision which he joined (but did not write). Varnum v. Brien held that the Iowa legislature's ban on gay marriage violated the Iowa Constitution.

With my law school colleague Paul Gowder, we do not argue that our federal and state (Missouri Plan) judiciary operate flawlessly, any more than any other institution does -- hospitals, major corporations, think tanks, legislatures, foundations, newspapers, universities, or police departments.

Nor do we deny that there is some role for democracy.

We simply believe that constitutions, and the judiciary to interpret them, were specifically established precisely to be a check against the mob rule that would result from a "popular control of judges" that includes the removal from office of those whose judicial opinions were disliked by a majority of the people.

We believe the people's remedies for judges' statutory interpretations the majority rejects are to be found in legislatures, not courts. If the majority disagrees with the court's interpretation of a constitutional provision, the public's remedy lies in a constitutional amendment.

For our full analysis, and excerpts from, and response to, someone who definitely disagrees with us, just click here.