In December the Iowa Court of Appeals ruled that the Harrison County Board of Supervisors violated the Iowa Open Meetings law. Last week, the Iowa Supreme Court declined to review the lower court’s decision. That leaves in place the lower court’s ruling that the Harrison…
By Ryan Koopmans and Ryan Leemkuil If the Iowa legislature creates an express exception to the employment-at-will doctrine, may the courts carve out an even greater exception under the public-policy doctrine? Late last year, the Iowa Court of Appeals said yes in Dorshkind v. Oak…
By Ryan Koopmans Today the Iowa Supreme Court granted further review in five cases: In re Marriage of Schenkelberg, No. 10-1919: The Court of Appeals ruled that the parties’ prenuptial agreement was enforceable, rejecting Ms. Schenkelberg’s argument that the agreement was voidable because her ex-husband had legal counsel and she…
By Ryan Koopmans The Supreme Court announced today that on January 11 it granted further review in five cases: State v. Jones, 09-0146: The Court of Appeals affirmed Arzel Jones’ convictions for kidnapping, sexual abuse, and assault in two separate cases. Jones presented several issues…
By Ryan Koopmans The Iowa Supreme Court announced today that it has granted further review in three post-conviction relief cases. Two of them–Pierce v. State and Kolzow v. State– deal with the calculation of “earned time” by the Department of Corrections. The third, Perez v. State,…
The Court heard oral argument in In re Detention of Harlow on September 9 and filed its opinion on October 9. Chief Justice Christensen wrote for the court that unanimously affirmed the district court’s judgment committing Joshua Harlow as a sexually violent predator (SVP).
On September 10, the Iowa Supreme Court heard the oral arguments in the case of State v. Belt and issued its opinion on October 2.
Is it inherently prejudicial to have a uniformed sheriff’s deputy stand next to the witness box while the defendant testifies?
Under what circumstances may a court reviewing a religious university’s decision to deny a religious exemption under the Iowa Civil Rights Act determine whether a student’s religious beliefs are genuine?
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.
