[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.
The Iowa Court of Appeals selects certain opinions for publication in the Northwestern Reporter. In April, the Court of Appeals selected six opinions for publication. Following are summaries of those opinions.
Two Iowans who deposited cash into bitcoin automated teller machines, as they say they were instructed to do by scammers, will not receive their money back as a result of two Iowa Supreme Court rulings saying the owner of the ATM had the better argument that it was legally entitled to the cash seized by Linn County authorit …
An Iowa organization that advocates on behalf of Hispanic Iowans did not have legal standing to bring suit seeking to dissolve a 13-year-old injunction that barred the Secretary of State from disseminating voter registration materials in languages other than English, the Iowa Supreme Court held in a unanimous decision handed down May 9.
A law enforcement officer making a roadside stop is legally allowed to search a vehicle without a warrant under an “automobile exception” to the protection against unreasonable searches and seizures granted by the Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and separately under the Iowa Constitution. That exception, recog …
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.
