I did a quick search of the Iowa stories on the notion the remaining four justices that authored Brien vs. Varnum (the gay marriage license case in Iowa) and came up with a list of stories that is both interesting and disturbing. To have lived the law for over 30 years and assisted people, not corporations, with people problems of significance to their lives, I must say this one stumps me. We have so many economic problems right now; and so it’s difficult for me to understand why the gay marriage license issue is worth all the time, money and effort being put into it. Vote No morphed into what now appears to be a show-down in the Iowa legislature over judicial impeachment procedures involving the remaining four justices. U.S. Supreme Court Justice Scalia’s strict constructionist point of view expressed this week further inflamed those proposing impeachment. To say that a point of view about Constitutional law is a reason to impeach a Justice is to ask for a dumber society and a pathetically weak judiciary. Points of view are nothing more than an opinion, but in the case of the judiciary it’s a learned point of view developed after law school and a long distinguished career. How did we ever get to throwing justices out of office because of a learned point of view?  This is a prime example of the tail wagging the dog. If you want Judges and Justices with no backbone, a lack of intelligence and the will to do nothing, but what the public asks, then just keep up the flames of the impeachment process.

In my opinion this is all about government being perceived to be a number of things that aren’t helping people.

• Government is perceived as too big and too large a part of the economy and our lives.
• Government employees are being paid disproportionately to non-government workers.
• Government is all about big business and not the average wage earner.
• Bailouts encourage resentment of those paying the bailout bill.
• Taxes are too high.
• Taxes are stifling job growth and job creation.
• The federal deficit is robbing the future of every mother and father’s child.
• Resentment is growing in proportion to the size of the deficit and the ballooning of government controls.

Simply put, taxpayers don’t count; corporations, large corporations do.

• As the number of people who aren’t working grows disproportionately to the number of working people, fear increases about an economic collapse, like what we just experienced.
• Bonuses for Wall Street and Insurance Executives is fostering enormous resentment; yet people know they need Wall Street for a retirement income source, because we can no longer count on our government.
• Politicians trading on inside information from government spending and leaving office extremely wealthy; all to the detriment of the voters they say they represent.
• People perceive we are nearing an economic collapse. Each bubble reinforces that subliminal message.

Add it up and you have people that are scared, nervous, angry and simple getting more pissed off every day.

The division of politics is a symptom of the economic illness we suffer. Congress has no will to do what they were sent to Washington to do because they are all guilty of putting their own wealth building ahead of their voter’s. Make Congressional insider trading a crime and you have term limits without the cost of a Constitutional Convention.

The anger at Iowa’s judiciary is a symptom of the public’s anger, misplaced, but still there and very much legitimate. The judiciary is viewed as the enforcement arm of all that is wrong with society. Wall Street and Bankster billionaires get away with one robbery after the next. And like the CFO that isn’t effective, the judges are perceived as part of the problem instead of a solution. It started long ago and tort reform comes to my mind. Tort reform was marketed as saving money from stopping a great number of “frivolous lawsuits” and greedy injured people. The trouble with this argument could easily be seen if one stopped to analyze the facts instead of letting emotion supplant reason. The judges allowed the subliminal message into every PI case and that’s where some of this trouble started. Because on the receiving end of this ridiculous argument was a person; an injured person that asked for none of this. They simply wanted to get on with their life, but instead found themselves being accused of being a fraud. The more they were falsely accused and robbed the more angry people got. And today we have hundreds of thousands of them voting against the judges because the judges are seen not as a part of a solution to put our lives back together, but as the arm that reaches out to help with stealing our future. I still have trouble sleeping thinking about how an eleven year old child can be worth nothing to her parents. [See JERRICA ANN- HILLEMAN-RUDEN ESTATE, and JEFF RUDEN, Plaintiffs-Appellants, vs. MARLA SUDDRETH and CRAIG ALLEN MCCOID, Defendants-Appellees both the Iowa Court of Appeals decision.] And then imagine this is your dead child. Ask yourself, if your healthy, intelligent and obedient child is worth spending $10,000+ per year to raise how can your investment in that child be worth nothing to an Iowa jury? I’ve spent many nights pondering that question. I had and have no satisfactory answer still for my clients. After all isn't a deer shot out of season worth thousands of dollars to the State of Iowa? Then how can a child be worth nothing to the parents? Like I said, I have no answer.

I for one can’t imagine how those advocating for impeachment will be cast in history. I suspect they will be viewed as insensitive at best, vulgar in their delivery, current day bigots, who were intellectual dimwits and who acted insanely.

Here is a list of the available stories on impeachment.

Women Aren't People Under Scalia's Constitution: Ann Woolner

What is legal isn't necessarily moral, right or even justice in the minds of the majority.

GOP Leader: No Decision On Justice Impeachment

...forward to impeach the remaining four justices on the Iowa Supreme Court because of their role in a decision striking down the state's ban on same-sex marriage.

from Des Moines, IA news from WHO-TV- msnbc.com - Jan 7, 2011 (18 hours ago)

GOP Leader: No Decision On Justice Impeachment

...forward to impeach the remaining four justices on the Iowa Supreme Court because of their role in a decision striking down the state's ban on same-sex marriage.

from KCCI.com - Local News - Jan 7, 2011 (19 hours ago)

Dems would ’shut the place down’ to block impeachment vote

...Republicans to impeach Iowa Supreme Court justices, a Democratic leader said today.

from DesMoinesRegister.com - NEWS - Jan 7, 2011 (14 hours ago)

Branstad: No Grounds For Justices Impeachment

...effort to impeach four remaining Iowa Supreme Court justices over a same-sex marriage ruling is the appropriate remedy.

from KCCI.com - Local News - Jan 4, 2011 (4 days ago)

3 seek to impeach remaining high court justices

...launch an impeachment process to oust the four Iowa Supreme Court justices who will continue serving next year.

from DesMoinesRegister.com - NEWS - Dec 18, 2010 4:28 AM

Republican Lawmakers Seek to Impeach 4 Iowa Supreme Court Justices Who Struck Gay-Marriage Ban

After the Iowa Supreme Court last year struck down as unconstitutional a state statutory ban on gay marriage, opponents of same-sex marriage targeted the three judges among the seven total justices on the court who were up for retention this year. And, in a stunning Election Day defeat, all three of the sitting justices lost their bids to stay on t...

from ABA Journal Top Stories - Dec 17, 2010 7:10 PM

Impeach Remaining Supreme Court Justices, GOP Lawmakers Say

from KCRG - News - Local - Dec 17, 2010 5:07 PM

GOP Legislators Want To Impeach 3 Justices

...try to impeach four Iowa Supreme Court justices who joined in a unanimous 2009 ruling that legalized same-sex marriage in the state.

from KCCI.com - Local News - Dec 17, 2010 4:38 PM