Litigation

Who Will Appoint Three IA Justices?

By Peter Hardin

If he has the opportunity before stepping down Jan. 14 in defeat, he will name three new Iowa Supreme Court justices, Gov. Chet Culver says.

A nonpartisan nominating panel will send the names of finalists to Iowa’s governor in a process that could be done by Jan. 14, when Republican Terry Branstad takes the oath of office as Culver’s successor, according to a Des Moines Register article.

“They decide the timeline, they decide the names they send and we don’t know what that timeline will look like, but if they send those names to me I will exercise my duties as governor as I am required to do,” Culver said. He is a Democrat.

Branstad, on the other hand, has urged the outgoing governor not to appoint successors to the three justices who voters dumped in retention (up-or-down) elections this month. A move to oust the judges was fueled by out of state groups angry over the court’s 2009 ruling that permitted same-sex marriages in Iowa.

“I would think that Gov. Culver would concur that we need to be careful about not rushing to try to replace the people that have been rejected, but instead to come up with a thoughtful process that could restore credibility to the court,” Branstad has said. You can learn all about the Iowa election from Gavel Grab.

Full post as published by The Gavel on November 16, 2010 (boomark / email).