The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit Tuesday denied the publisher of Esquire magazine’s request for rehearing of its Sept. 15 panel ruling reversing in part a district court decision dismissing California Congressman Devin Nunes’ defamation suit against the company. Hearst Magazines Inc.,…
The publisher of Esquire magazine is asking the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit to reconsider its Sept. 15 panel ruling that the magazine published potentially defamatory statements about California Congressman Devin Nunes and his family’s dairy farm in Iowa. In its motion for…
In 2019 California Congressman Devin Nunes sued political writer Ryan Lizza and Esquire magazine in federal court claiming a 2018 story in the magazine defamed him by falsely implying that Nunes conspired to hide the suggestion that the Nunes family’s dairy farm in northwest Iowa…
The Ponca Indian Tribe of Nebraska is a step closer to winning a long-running legal dispute over a casino it operates on land it owns in Carter Lake, Iowa, as a result of an Aug. 30 ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the…
This week, the Eighth Circuit held that a constituent who was “blocked” on Twitter by the account of a Missouri state legislator could not maintain a claim against that public official for violation of his First Amendment rights. In Campbell v. Representative Cheri Reisch, the…
The Iowa Supreme Court affirmed dismissal of a human trafficking charge and clarified that, under the 2024 statute, a defendant cannot commit human trafficking by attempting to buy sex from a victim who does not exist.
In a 5–2 decision filed on June 12, 2026, the Iowa Supreme Court in State v. Gibbs upheld a mother’s three child endangerment convictions under Iowa Code section 726.6(1)(a). Chief Justice Christensen wrote the majority opinion, joined by Justices McDonald, Oxley, McDermott, and May. Justice Mansfield filed a partial dissent, joined by Justice Waterman, concurring as to two convictions but dissenting as to the third.
In a unanimous decision filed on May 22, 2026, the Iowa Supreme Court in State v. Hall held that a defendant need not be the person who initiated an encounter to commit harassment.
In a divided 5–2 decision issued on March 27, 2026, the Iowa Supreme Court held that the search of a visitor’s backpack found on the premises during the execution of a search warrant did not violate the visitor’s rights under the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution or article I, section 8 of the Iowa Constitution.
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.
