[This article by Matthew A. McGuire, Spencer S. Cady, and Chris E. Slack was originally published in the August 2024 issue of The Iowa Lawyer magazine.]
The period between 2018 and 2022 was a period of great change for the Iowa Supreme Court, with five of the seven current justices joining the Court d …
The Iowa Supreme Court entered opinions in fifteen cases during June 2024. In addition to individual posts on six cases analyzed on this blog, the remaining opinions from June are summarized below.
Does a drug-sniffing dog violate a suspect’s constitutional protection against unreasonable government search and seizure by putting its paws up on the suspect’s car at the urging of its handler?
Five members of the Iowa Supreme Court said that subjecting the suspect’s car to a sniff by a drug-sniffing dog violated …
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.
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.
When Dubuque police officer Katherine Avenarius accidentally shot herself in the leg while attending an Iowa Law Enforcement Academy firearms instructor school, she sued the academy claiming her injury was the result of an instructor’s advice on how to handle her firearm that contradicted how she had previously been trained. The State, which operates the academy, argued Avenarius signed a “clear and unequivocal” waiver and release of liability.
The Iowa Supreme Court upheld a 35-year minimum prison sentence for a Fairfield juvenile who pleaded guilty to first degree murder for the death of his high school Spanish teacher. In its unanimous decision, the Court rejected the defendant’s argument that, under the Iowa Constitution, the State must present expert testimony showing a minimum sentence is necessary for a juvenile offender.
The Iowa Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in a case involving Summit Carbon Solutions’ proposed CO2 pipeline in a special evening session Oct. 8 in the historic Iowa Supreme Court courtroom in the Iowa State Capitol Building.
The Iowa Supreme Court will hear arguments in eight cases Oct. 8-10. Six other cases will be submitted to the Court without argument. Following are brief summaries of the October cases.
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.
