Litigation

New Ad Hits ?Activist? Judges in Iowa

By Charlie Hall

www.youtube.com/watch?v=MBEynTYEyPY

A new ad is airing in Iowa, funded by $200,000 from the National Organization for Marriage, that derides the “ruling class” and assails the state Supreme Court’s “activist” ruling in overturning a ban on same-sex marriage. NOM spent $235,000 for an earlier ad campaign seeking to oust three justices in a retention election.

There was a swirl of other news surrounding Iowa’s heated judicial retention (up-or-down) elections:

• The head of the Iowa Family Policy Center urged encouraged his group’s supporters to vote no on all Iowa judges appearing on the November ballot, according to an Iowa Independent article.
• Former Republican U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania and Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, will be part of a 45-county Iowa bus tour mounted to unseat the justices and sponsored by two national groups, the Family Research Action Council and the National Organization for Marriage, the Des Moines Register reported.
• Chief Justice Marsha Ternus told an audience in Cedar Rapids that critics “want to use Iowa’s retention election process to send a message to all judges throughout the nation that their jobs are in jeopardy if they do not rule according to popular opinion,? according to a KCRG report.
• Ray Moore, a former chief justice from Alabama, visited the state and said justices up for retention were not following God’s law, and should be removed, KCCI 8 reported.
• Two former Iowa justices and Bob Vander Plaats, a leader of the ouster drive, squared off in a forum. Vander Plaats said the same-sex marriage ruling could lead to a decision legalizing polygamy. Former Justice said the ouster campaign was trying to politicize the judicial branch, according to an Iowa Independent article.
• The ouster drive continued to capture national news media attention, as was evident when NPR broadcast a report that was entitled, “Gay Marriage Critics Try to Oust Iowa Justices.”

A Des Moines Register article, meanwhile, highlighted rising spending over the retention battle and quoted the Justice at Stake Campaign as saying the race was one of the group’s most closely watched contests in the nation.

To read more about the Iowa retention campaign, see this Justice at Stake-Brennan Center for Justice news release, or visit Judicial Elections 2010.

Full post as published by The Gavel on October 20, 2010 (boomark / email).