If you’re going to bash gays you may at least have the decency to do it openly and without the guise of hiding your fears and anger behind a smear campaign against judges that you know aren’t going to be able to defend themselves.

The editorial in the WSJ titled, “Iowa’s Total Recall” is Total BS. The editorial gives the impression that Iowa's Supreme Court is full of liberals. No way. If you count how many terms and years the Governor's office has been held by each party it should be obvious. As it stands the Dem’s are losing the contest to appoint Iowa’s judges. After 189 years it’s the Democrats 9 and the Republicans 61. If that's even a fight I doubt the Republicans realize it.

Before we anew this gay marriage-license debate please keep in mind that the Republicans in Iowa have controlled the Governor’s office for 61 or the 70 terms of the government. Going back 189 years, all the way back to December 3, 1846, the Republicans have controlled the appointment process for 155 of the 189 years.  So if anyone is to be blamed for appointing “activist judges”, assuming they even exist, it has to be my Republican Party. If we have to blame any party for appointing Iowa’s judges it has to be the Republican Party. Of course we don’t, but that was the veiled message being touted by Vander Platts and company as they delivered a large dose of fear mongering to Iowans in favor of removing judges from Iowa's highest court. No sooner did the vote get counted the WSJ wasted no time in heaping it on to sell newspaper ad copy. The editorial was based on fear not fact.

The Republican candidate that won the Governor’s chair will start anew in 2011 and if you think they will do anything different to change the judicial landscape, think again. Don’t forget that Kim Reynolds had a mussle put on her during the campaign when she mentioned civil unions. There is an obvious reason why the Republican running mate to Terry Branstad, got the Sarah Palin treatment in Iowa.

So here is the bone of contention this morning. This last weekend edition to the WSJ appeared an editorial titled, “Iowa’s Total Recall”. The editorial demonstrated how little the WSJ’s editorial staff understands about the judicial process in Iowa, while bashing Iowa’s judiciary as being activist liberals. At first I thought it was a joke, it wasn’t and it isn’t.

Although the editorial claims “Lawyers are shocked”, Iowa’s lawyers weren’t shocked, we were dismayed that people in this state were influenced enough by people outside of this state making false claims about Iowa’s judges being activists for the purpose of getting Iowans to follow their lead about what no one wants to talk about; bashing gay people and putting them in their place. That's gutless, really gutless, heartless and we should all be ashamed, but let's get back to the Iowa judiciary.

Oh wouldn’t Putin like having her as the Commander in Chief. Come to Moscow muffin and I’ll give you a ride in my MIG.

Iowa’s judiciary is so far removed from being activists, that to me, the entire campaign proved what William F. Buckley claimed years ago: The conservative Republican leadership has decided the best way to win elections is to dumb-down the message. (That’s why we have Sarah Palin and why she talked about seeing Russia from where she washes her dishes. Oh wouldn’t Putin like having her as the Commander in Chief. Come to Moscow muffin and I’ll give you a ride in my MIG.) A dumbed-down message worked in Iowa because of fear; more than 50% of those voting voted not to retain three of Iowa’s Supreme Court justices. It worked so well that its messenger of moronic morality, Vander Platts might as well have been selling ice cubes to Alaskans.

David Frum, Sarah Palin, and Right-Wing Reach, Marsh, March 26, 2010 - It may have taken twenty years, the death of the conservative philosopher William F. Buckley, as well as the rise of an African American president, but right-wing radio has finally metastasized into its own grass-roots movement.

Intellectuals, thinkers, and policy gurus need not apply. The sunny side of Reaganism, the fantasy once hailed has historic, has left the landscape.

"Can We Have Buckley Back?  That is an untenable position for a conservative movement that needs to generate new ideas and groom future leaders who can speak articulately and persuasively to the whole country. (It's true that Ronald Reagan was not a book learner, but under the theory of multiple intelligences, he more than held his own.) Before conservatism was a viable political movement, it was a viable intellectual movement, and it was those on the center and in the left who were seen as intellectually slovenly."

How Dumb Can We Get?

Keep this in mind about the Republican candidate for Iowa’s Lieutenant Governor: She let it slip that she supports civil unions for same-sex couples and believes the government should stay out of telling citizens who should be married. See Is Kim Reynolds getting the “Sarah Palin” treatment in Iowa?” Oops, better dumb down that message Kimmie.

The WSJ editorial isn’t about fact as much as it’s about pushing emotional buttons that get people fighting in order to ignore talking about their fears. I have several bones of contention with the editorial but the one that really ticks me off is the claim that Iowa Justices read something in the Iowa Constitution that no one else saw for 150 years. Let me borrow what my 84 year-old mother would ask of you: Are you stupid? It isn’t a matter of the Court reading something into the Constitution; it’s a matter of an aggrieved party presenting the issue to the Court for review and interpretation. The Justices didn’t read anything into the Constitution; this was an issue of first impression. The Justices didn’t go out of their way to find this issue nor did they ask for it to be presented to them; it just was and it’s their job to decide the issue. A party presented it to the Court and the court is required to decide the issue based on the law and facts presented. The WSJ editorial board knows this, or should know it; they massaged the facts for the sole purpose of playing the prejudice card to sell newspaper ad copy.

As for Iowa’s justices and judges being “liberals”, are you kidding me? You know as much about Iowa as you do about good investigative journalism, which after Maddoff’s ten-year plus Ponzi scheme doesn’t appear to be much. Because while you attack the method by which judges are selected in Iowa you haven’t a clue about the conservative governors that appointed them and the conservative backgrounds of each Justice. Keep in mind the Varnum decision was a seven to zero decision in favor of issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples. That means all Justices on the Court agreed, irrespective of their conservative backgrounds that Iowa’s Constitution required the holding. But don’t take my word for it, try taking a look at their backgrounds and which Governor appointed them. Know that Terry Brandstad is a Republican, Tom Vilsack a Democrat now serving as the United States Secretary of State and Chet Culver a Democrat whose father served as a U.S. Senator.

Marsha Ternus was appointed in 1993 by Governor Terry Brandstad. Chief Justice Ternus is a native of Iowa, growing up on a farm in northern Benton County and graduating from Vinton High School in 1969. She received her bachelor's degree with honors and high distinction, Phi Beta Kappa, from the University of Iowa in 1972. She earned her law degree with honors, Order of the Coif, from Drake University Law School in 1977. While at Drake, she served as Editor-in-Chief of the Drake Law Review. Chief Justice Ternus received an honorary degree from Iowa Wesleyan College in 2005 and an honorary degree from Simpson College in 2010. She is admitted to practice law in the State of Iowa and the State of Arizona. 

Mark Cady was appointed in 1998 by Terry Brandstad and was born in that liberal bastion called Rapid City, South Dakota.

Micheal Streit, was appointed in 2001 by Secretary of State Tom Vilsack. He was born and raised in Sheldon, Iowa. He was Editor-in-Chief of his law school law review in San Diego and chose to write on securities regulation.

Justice Wiggins was appointed in 2003, again by Tom Vilsack and also served as an associate editor of the law review at Drake University Law School.

Daryl Hecht is from Sioux City, Iowa and was appointed in 2006. He was schooled in South Dakota and then West Virginia.

Brent Apel was appointed in 2006 by the U.S. Secretary of State; he’s from Dubuque and holds a master’s degree from Stanford and a JD from the University of California, Berkeley. He served as a law clerk for the United States Court of Appeals fro the District of Columbia Circuit. He was Iowa’s First Attorney General and Iowa Deputy Attorney General and has argued before the U.S. Supreme Court including the second “Christian burial” case in Nix vs. Williams.

David Baker, was appointed by Chet Culver in 2008. He grew up in Waterloo, Iowa and achieved the Order of the Coif from the University of Iowa School of Law. His 25-years of practice was in the areas of tax, corporate and bankruptcy law. He was bar examiner for 10 years.

They are all conservatives; not a single liberal in the bunch. 

Guess who won the recent Iowa Governor election? The Republican Party Candidate Terry Brandstad did; the same one that appointed the Chief Justice, Marsha Ternus. By my calculation since 1846 Iowa has had a Republican governor for 155 of the 189 years Governors have served in Iowa and had the right to appoint judges and justices. Democrats have held the Governor’s post for only 34 of those 189 years. Term wise the Republicans have held the Governor’s mansion for 61 terms and the Democrats for only 9. So where is the evidence to support the notion that historically Iowa’s judiciary is full of activist judges? No where that I can find.

List of Governors of Iowa

These justices aren’t as the WSJ has painted them to be. The judicial system in Iowa isn’t liberal, far from it. I’ve been on the receiving end of decisions by this court and realistically by removing Justice Ternus and Streit you’ve probably done my client’s a favor. That said the reasons why these justices were removed was ill advised. Iowa isn’t a liberal’s playground; Iowans are conservatives that want nothing more than to be able to earn a decent living and to be left alone. I’m sure that’s the same desire of most gays and lesbians. In this instance the WSJ doesn’t know what it’s editorializing about. The Wall Street Journal editorial staff owes Iowa’s Justices an apology along with a retraction.