Justice Streit is slightly wrong, but not far off when he predicts $100,000 judiciary war chests to combat the far right. Let me set this up with a brief description of the fight going on in Iowa.

A gay couple applied for a marriage license and were denied the license;l then sued the Clerk of Court asking the Court to order the Clerk to issue the license. The gay couple argued when it came to marriage license issuance, the Equal Protection Clause required gay and straight couples to be treated equally. The Iowa Supreme Court heard the case, agreed and held the Clerk of Courts in Iowa's 99 counties were required to issue gay couples a marriage license. So far no big deal, right? Iowans against the ruling banned together with homophobes from across the country and as bigots will do they organized a campaign to not retain the three Iowa Supreme Court Justices whose names would be on the next ballot in November 2010. Under Iowa law members of the judiciary must stand for a "retention vote" every so often. That is a mechanism allowing the public to remove judges if they don't like their rulings. In November 2010 three Justices were narrowly voted out of office all over the gay-marriage-license decision. One of those Justices is Michael Streit, a very clever writer whose opinions I have enjoyed reading over the years. One day I'll write a blog using his very cleverly worded decisions, but not today. Today we are going to focus on his comments last week.

Justice Streit this week spoke at the University of Iowa College of Law and stated: "As far as what goes in the future, I think that judges, if they face real opposition, cannot sit back quietly and wait for voters to do what is right. I think they're going to have to campaign, and that means they're going to have to raise money. They're going to have to tell people, I will be fair and impartial, but please, I need $100,000."

What I believe Justice Streit is incorrect about is the amount the judges and justices will need to fight hate groups. You won’t need $100,000 you’ll need $250,000. Aside from the amount I have to agree with him.

You will recall Michael Streit is one of the Iowa Supreme Court Justices not retained in this past election. I’ve advocated that Iowa’s judiciary blog to protect their brand, the Iowa Constitution. So far no one is taking that idea seriously, but they will in time.

Streit in his comments invoked the Green Day song "American Idiot" to describe the forces that successfully campaigned for his removal.

Here is to you Michael, you’re right on the money with this idea. Don’t ever wonder why Iowa experiences brain drain. The young people of this state look at the old bigots and say, ‘Why stay?’ Onward we march.

Here are the lyrics to American Idiot by Green Day.

"American Idiot"

Don't want to be an American idiot.
Don't want a nation under the new media
And can you hear the sound of hysteria?
The subliminal mind fuck America.

Welcome to a new kind of tension.
All across the alien nation.
Where everything isn't meant to be okay.
Television dreams of tomorrow.
We're not the ones who're meant to follow.
For that's enough to argue.

Well maybe I'm the faggot America.
I'm not a part of a redneck agenda.
Now everybody do the propaganda.
And sing along to the age of paranoia.

Welcome to a new kind of tension.
All across the alien nation.
Where everything isn't meant to be okay.
Television dreams of tomorrow.
We're not the ones who're meant to follow.
For that's enough to argue.

Don't want to be an American idiot.
One nation controlled by the media.
Information age of hysteria.
It's calling out to idiot America.

Welcome to a new kind of tension.
All across the alien nation.
Where everything isn't meant to be okay.
Television dreams of tomorrow.
We're not the ones who're meant to follow.
For that's enough to argue.

Send "American Idiot" Ringtone to your Cell

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Yi-LvnM_5M

Don’t make Iowa a place for American Idiot!

Post on Governor Branstad’s Facebook Page: Don’t make Iowa a place for American Idiots!

Join us to tell Governor Branstad you don’t want Iowa to be a place for American Idiots.

http://www.governor.iowa.gov/ and http://www.facebook.com/TerryBranstad

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