By: Fran Haas on May 18th, 2012
On Wednesday, the class of plaintiffs in Pippen v. Iowa appealed the Iowa district court’s dismissal of their “implicit bias” race discrimination claims against the State of Iowa. A summary of the district court’s decision is here.
This case has received national attention for its focus on implicit bias, and the Iowa Supreme Court proceedings will be watched closely. Stay tuned for further updates.
By: Ryan Koopmans on May 14th, 2012
Chief Justice Mark Cady is speaking at Buena Vista University’s graduation ceremony on Saturday, May 26. The Chief Justice has been teaching at the liberal arts college since 1982 and has received adjunct-faculty-of-the-year honors on several occassions. The ceremony starts at 2:30. For more information, visit BVU’s webpage here.
By: Administrator on May 11th, 2012
Under the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, an employer may not discriminate against an employee “because of” his or her age. Although the phrase “because of” does not seem so ambiguous, the U.S. Supreme Court was asked to interpret those words three years ago in Gross v. FBL Financial Services, Inc. Based on the arguments of Nyemaster Goode attorneys Frank Harty and Deb Hulett and their former colleague Jordan Hansell, the Court ruled that “because of” means “but for”—that is, but for age discrimination, the employee would not have been fired.
Iowa Senators Charles Grassley and Tom Harkin disagree with that ruling, and they have introduced legislation to overrule it. In this Spring’s Defense Update, Harty and Hulett critique that legislation and discuss its implications. The article, titled POWADA: A Gross Overreaction, is here.
By: Ryan Koopmans on May 4th, 2012
Solicitor General Donald Verrilli Jr. will give the commencement address at the University of Iowa College of Law on Friday, May 11.
The college students on the east side of the river may not know Verrilli by name, but they likely know of his work: He’s “the lawyer who killed Grokster.” For those too young (or too old) to remember, Grokster was a peer-to-peer file sharing network program similar to Napster. (And if you don’t know Napster, I can’t help you.)
By: Ryan Koopmans on May 2nd, 2012
I’ve used the phrase “Solicitor General” several times in the last few months (see here and here), but haven’t explained what that means. For the non-lawyers and law students in the group, the short answer is this: The Solicitor General is the lawyer who represents the United States in all cases before the U.S. Supreme Court. It’s a highly respected position that has been held by several famous attorneys, including U.S. Supreme Court Justices Robert Jackson, Thurgood Marshall, and Elena Kagan. Chief Justice Roberts and Justice Alito also worked in the Solicitor General’s office early in their careers.
The Solicitor General and his staff do much more than just argue before the Supreme Court. For more on that, see this informative SCOTUSblog post: What does the Solicitor General do?
By: Ryan Koopmans on May 1st, 2012
Disagreement among the justices of the Iowa Supreme Court is rare. Since Justices Waterman, Mansfield, and Zager started signing onto opinions in April of last year, the Court has decided 113 cases; the decision was unanimous in all but 11; and the Court split 4-3 only six times. That’s remarkable unanimity, which makes the Court’s decision in King v. State all the more interesting. The case produced five separate opinions (which may be a record). And four of those opinions, written by Chief Justice Cady and Justices Mansfield, Waterman, and Appel, include interesting discussions (and even direct back-and-forth) on the issue of proper constitutional interpretation. Those discussions are relevant to almost any constitutional case and are thus worth summarizing.
By: Ryan Koopmans on April 22nd, 2012
Last Friday, a majority of the Iowa Supreme Court rejected a constitutional challenge to Iowa’s public education system. The case is noteworthy for that ruling alone–especially this year ,when education reform is at the top of the legislative agenda. But the five separate opinions–totaling 163 pages–are about much more than education. Several issues surfaced in this case, chief among them constitutional interpretation and the role of the judiciary. The justices also wrangled over the proper application of the rational-basis test, issue preservation, and the pleading requirements applicable to a motion to dismiss. One posts isn’t enough to cover all of this, so I’ll go in stages–starting first with a general overview of the case.
By: Ryan Koopmans on April 20th, 2012
Two early press reports on the King decision:
Radio Iowa: Supreme Court dismisses suit over state education issues on 4-3 vote.
Des Moines Register: Iowa Supreme Court narrowly sidesteps legal fight over sufficiency of Iowa schools.
By: Ryan Koopmans on April 20th, 2012
The Iowa Supreme Court today decided King et al. v. State of Iowa, affirming the dismissal of a lawsuit brought by sixteen students or parents of students in public schools challenging Iowa’s educational public system on various statutory and constitutional provisions.
The opinion of the Court affirming the dismissal was written by Justice Mansfield, joined by Chief Justice Cady, and Justices Waterman and Zager.
Chief Justice Cady and Justice Waterman also filed separate concurring opinions.
Justice Wiggins dissented, joined by Justices Hecht and Appel.
Justice Appel wrote a separate dissent as well, which was joined by Justice Hecht.
All the opinions total 163 pages and include some significant discussions about the appropriate role of the judiciary. This case was initially submitted to the court in March 2010, but was reargued in June 2011 after three new Justices were added to the Court. More analysis will follow.
By: Ryan Koopmans on April 19th, 2012
Today, Reuters reporter David Ingram asks: Who would President Romney nominate to the Supreme Court? Based on his conversations with lawyers in the know, Ingram ticks off ten possibilities, and that list includes Eighth Circuit Judge, and Iowa native, Steven Colloton. Judge Colloton–a former clerk for Chief Justice William Rehnquist–was appointed to the federal appeals court that covers Iowa in 2003. Before that, he served as the United States Attorney for the Southern District of Iowa.
Coincidentally, the man that would shepherd any Supreme Court nominee through the Senate under a Romney administration would be Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley. Senator Grassley is currently the ranking member in the Senate Judiciary Committee and, depending on the outcome over the November elections, could be chairman come 2013.
Others on the “short list” include former Solicitor General Paul Clement (who recently argued before the Supreme Court on behalf of Iowa and 25 other states on the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act), D.C. Circuit Judge Brett Kavanaugh, Seventh Circuit Judge Diane Sykes, and D.C. lawyer Miguel Estrada. The full article is here.
Ryan Koopmans
Anna Mundy
Debra Hulett
Fran Haas
Jay Syverson
John Clendenin
Matthew Eslick
Scott Sundstrom
