Iowa Supreme Court Decisions
Seven justices serve on the Iowa Supreme Court, which is the first court to which an appeal is sent from a trial court in Iowa. The Supreme Court will decide whether to review the appeal or send the appeal to the Iowa Court of Appeals. The majority of the cases that are appealed to the Supreme Court involve criminal, family, or juvenile matters. The Court supervises lower courts in Iowa and administers the affairs of the judicial branch.
A candidate for the Supreme Court must be admitted to practice law in the state, and they also must be able to complete an eight-year term before they turn 72, which is the mandatory retirement age for judges in Iowa. The State Judicial Nominating Commission handles the initial stage of evaluating candidates, since Iowa uses a commission-selection, political appointment system of selecting justices. The Commission provides a list of candidates to the Governor, who will make the final appointment. However, once a justice has been appointed, they must go through a retention election in the first general election after they have served for one year. They will serve the full eight-year term only if they win the retention election. Otherwise, they must leave the Court at the end of the year in which the election is held. The Chief Justice is elected by the other justices of the Court, and they serve for the same term as they would if they were an ordinary justice.
In addition to being voted out in a retention election, there are two ways in which a justice may be removed from the Iowa Supreme Court. First, they may be removed if they are impeached by a majority vote of the Iowa House of Representatives and then convicted by a two-thirds vote of the Iowa Senate. A justice also may be removed if the Supreme Court determines that this is appropriate based on a recommendation by the Iowa Judicial Qualifications Commission.
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Recent Decisions From the Iowa Supreme Court
Date: April 26, 2024
Docket Number: 23-0201
Justia Opinion Summary: The case revolves around the Kirkwood Institute's request for public records from the Office of the Auditor of State in Iowa. The Institute sought emails between the Auditor's office and two investigative reporters. The…
Date: April 26, 2024
Docket Number: 23-0239
Justia Opinion Summary: The Supreme Court of Iowa reviewed a case involving a dispute between the University of Iowa and Modern Piping, Inc., a mechanical contractor. The dispute arose during the construction of the University of Iowa Stead…
Date: April 19, 2024
Docket Number: 22-0259
Justia Opinion Summary: This case involves a dispute within the Hora family over the operation of their family farm, Hora Farms, Inc. (HFI). Two brothers, Brian and Gregg Hora, brought a derivative action as minority shareholders against their…
Date: April 19, 2024
Docket Number: 23-0055
Justia Opinion Summary: The case involves Clayton Curtis Brown, who was convicted of possession of a firearm as a felon, aggravated eluding, and driving while barred. The charges stemmed from an incident where Brown eluded a police officer's…
Date: April 19, 2024
Docket Number: 23-0560
Justia Opinion Summary: The defendant, Christopher James Wilson, was charged with two counts of indecent exposure after he was seen masturbating in public by two women, E.H. and T.A., at a gas station. Wilson followed the women to another…
Date: April 19, 2024
Docket Number: 23-0600
Justia Opinion Summary: Jesse McCollaugh was found guilty of child exploitation after his wife discovered videos on his phone of her 15-year-old sister using the bathroom, which McCollaugh had secretly recorded. The videos showed the minor…
Date: April 19, 2024
Docket Number: 23-0866
Justia Opinion Summary: The case involves William and Mary Goche, LLC; Global Assets, LLC; and Joseph Goche (collectively “Goche”), who own land in three different drainage districts in Kossuth County. The Kossuth County Board of Supervisors…
Date: April 12, 2024
Docket Number: 21-1898
Justia Opinion Summary: The case involves Tracy White, an employee of the Iowa Department of Human Services (DHS), who filed a lawsuit against the State of Iowa and DHS under the Iowa Civil Rights Act (ICRA) alleging a hostile work environment.…
Date: April 12, 2024
Docket Number: 23-0572
Date: March 29, 2024
Docket Number: 22-1328
Justia Opinion Summary: In the Supreme Court of Iowa, a case involved Bridgestone Americas, Inc., and Old Republic Insurance Company, appellants, against Charles Anderson, appellee. Anderson, an employee of Bridgestone, reported a right…
Date: March 29, 2024
Docket Number: 22-1507
Justia Opinion Summary: The Supreme Court of Iowa upheld the decision of the Iowa Court of Appeals and the district court that sentenced a recidivist drug offender, Jacob Lee Goble, to an indeterminate prison sentence of up to five years.…
Date: March 29, 2024
Docket Number: 23-0858
Justia Opinion Summary: The Supreme Court of Iowa ruled in a case involving an individual, Faron Alan Starr, who was arrested and denied his request to call a family member to get an attorney. Starr was suspected of an assault and stealing two…
Date: March 22, 2024
Docket Number: 22-0397
Justia Opinion Summary: The appellant, Lawrence George Canady III, had been charged with voluntary manslaughter, willful injury causing bodily injury, and assault causing bodily injury due to his involvement in a fatal nighttime shooting…
Date: March 22, 2024
Docket Number: 22-0473
Justia Opinion Summary: The Supreme Court of Iowa affirmed the decision of the Court of Appeals and the District Court in favor of the City of Des Moines, in a case brought by Lime Lounge, LLC. Lime Lounge, a bar, challenged a city ordinance…
Date: March 22, 2024
Docket Number: 22-1367
Justia Opinion Summary: The case at hand arose from the appeal by Scott Randolph Luke, who was convicted of domestic abuse assault while on probation for two previous domestic abuse assaults. The district court sentenced him to two years in…
Some case metadata and case summaries were written with the help of AI, which can produce inaccuracies. You should read the full case before relying on it for legal research purposes.
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