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Devoted to Iowa’s Appellate Litigation System
With a focus on the Iowa Supreme Court, the Iowa Court of Appeals, and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit, On Brief: Iowa’s Appellate Blog is devoted to providing updates and analysis of current and ongoing appellate litigation.
The site offers benefits to attorneys, parties to litigation, and others affected by the arguments and outcomes of appellate litigation.
How Appellate Procedure Works in Iowa
- All appeals on civil and criminal matters come directly to the Iowa Supreme Court.
- Staff attorneys in the Supreme Court Clerk’s Office review all appeals and write a memo to the justices recommending whether a case should be retained by the Supreme Court or transferred to the Court of Appeals.
- Panels of three justices read those memos each month and choose which cases will be retained and which will be transferred to the Court of Appeals. It takes two votes to retain a case, but most votes on retaining cases are unanimous.
- Three-judge panels hear cases transferred to the Court of Appeals by the Supreme Court. Parties may apply to the Supreme Court for further review of a decision by the Court of Appeals.
- About 500 such applications for further review are filed with the Court each year.
- Every justice reads those applications, the Court of Appeals ruling, related briefs, and the court record.
- Then the justices vote on a “voting sheet” — marking “Y” for yes, “N” for no.
- Yes means at least a justice wants to review the case with the full court in conference, or at least look further into the case. A case may be held over and one justice may be delegated to look further into the case.
- Only one “Y” vote is needed for a case to go to a conference. All “N”s mean that case does not go to a conference. Yes votes may include comments from the justices, which are circulated, and there may be some back and forth among the justices.
- It takes the vote of four of the seven justices to grant further review.
[Note: This description of Iowa’s appellate procedure is based on an October 2020 interview with Iowa Supreme Court Justice Edward Mansfield by the Judicial Branch’s “In the Balance” podcast.]
Site Information About Appellate Litigation Includes:
- Descriptions of case rulings
- News related to state and federal appeals courts
- Case descriptions of upcoming arguments
- Calendar of cases:
- Cases argued by month
- Cases set for argument
- Cases screened for Iowa Supreme Court review
- Cases granted further review
- Access to briefs filed:
- Appellant briefs
- Appellee briefs
- Appellant reply briefs
- Amicus briefs
The blog is compiled and edited by attorneys and contributors at Nyemaster Goode. Iowa’s
largest law firm, Nyemaster Goode provides outstanding legal service to clients that range from individuals and emerging start-ups to Fortune 500 companies.
FEATURED POSTS
In four opinions over 61 pages, Iowa Supreme Court wrestles with meaning of Fourth Amendment
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Five members of the Iowa Supreme Court said that subjecting the suspect’s car to a sniff by a drug-sniffing dog violated …
Iowa Constitution mandates face-to-face confrontation by witness, Iowa Supreme Court rules
A defendant’s right under the Iowa Constitution to confront witnesses at trial is not satisfied by one-way video testimony where the witness testifying on camera is not able to see the defendant, the Iowa Supreme Court held in a 4-3 ruling handed down June 28. In reaching that conclusion, the Court declined to follow a U.S. Supreme Court precedent and overruled one of its own prior rulings.
Iowa Court of Appeals April 2024 Published Opinion Roundup
The Iowa Court of Appeals selects certain opinions for publication in the Northwestern Reporter. On April 11, 2024, the Court of Appeals selected three opinions for publication, summarized below.
Closely divided Iowa Supreme Court finds challenges to abortion restrictions under Iowa constitution subject to rational-basis review, reverses injunction against “fetal heartbeat” law
In a 4-3 decision, the Iowa Supreme Court held that rational basis review is the applicable standard in addressing challenges to abortion restrictions under the Iowa constitution.
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On Brief: Iowa’s Appellate Blog is devoted to appellate litigation with a focus on the Iowa Supreme Court, the Iowa Court of Appeals, and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit.