A Polk County District judge denied a defendant’s motion to suppress evidence from a traffic stop initiated by a police officer who could not make out one letter on the vehicle’s license plate because it was partially blocked by a trailer hitch ball.
When a criminal defendant pleads guilty to a crime, it produces the same result as a criminal conviction at trial. So courts have created procedural requirements designed to ensure that any plea is legally and constitutionally valid before it is accepted.
One requirement is that there must be a factual basis for the crim …
[This article by Matthew A. McGuire and Spencer S. Cady was originally published in the August 2022 issue of The Iowa Lawyer magazine. The 2021-2022 term statistics were compiled by Chris Slack.]
The 2021-2022 term of the Iowa Supreme Court concluded o …
The Iowa Supreme Court is responsible for supervising and regulating trial and appellate courts across the state. As the COVID-19 pandemic descended upon the state in early 2020, the Supreme Court was forced to issue emergency orders to protect the public and court staff while keeping the state’s court system functioning. …
The Iowa Supreme Court will go on the road to Denison Oct. 25 to hear oral arguments in an appeal by the State in a case involving a defendant who successfully argued in District Court that the State’s breath test evidence in a drunk-driving prosecution is inadmissible because he does not speak English and did not underst …
Because Iowa’s Consumer Fraud Act is enforced through civil proceedings aimed at making victims whole and preventing future fraudulent actions rather than punishment, defendants accused of violating the Act are not entitled to a trial by jury, the Iowa Supreme Court held in a decision handed down May 26.
The State brou …
A municipal water utility is not shielded by the Iowa Tort Claims Act from strict liability for damage to a Council Bluffs couples’ home caused by water main breaks, the Iowa Supreme Court held in a decision handed down May 19.
Jim and …
A case with a long procedural history in administrative and constitutional law that might have resolved the question of Medicaid coverage for gender-affirming surgery ended quietly May 12 when the Iowa Supreme Court declared the case moot. T …
A prosecutor did not discriminate against a Black criminal defendant by striking a Black member of the jury pool, the Iowa Supreme Court held in a decision handed down April 21, but three members of the Court in a separate opinion expressed …
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.
