Danielle Brown was one of five people in the bedroom of a house when a Des Moines police SWAT team swarmed in to execute a warrant naming a male occupant of the house to be searched for drugs and weapons. Brown was not named in the warrant but police searched her purse and found a small amount …
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Iowa Supreme Court asked: Is it possible to say the road not taken would have led to better place?
A southeast Iowa woman is asking the Iowa Supreme Court to overturn its 2010 decision that she says imposes an impossible burden on workers’ compensation claimants: proving that the outcome of the medical procedure they chose is better than a hypothetical alternative.
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Iowa Supreme Court restores sentence reduction in a ruling affecting 150 inmates
The Iowa Supreme Court in its first decision of the term handed down Oct. 13 agreed with a convicted sex offender that his prison sentence was wrongly extended by more than three years by the Iowa Department of Corrections (IDOC).
The IDOC’s recent poli …
A question in traffic-camera appeals: Do you have a constitutional right to break the speed limit in Iowa?
A legal dispute over a $75 traffic citation could have implications for thousands of drivers who receive speeding tickets in the mail based on evidence captured by an automated traffic-enforcement camera.
A number of lawsuits have been working their way thr …
Iowa Supreme Court: Plaintiffs may sue State for damages under the Iowa Constitution
Iowa’s former Workers’ Compensation Commissioner has a right to sue the State for monetary damages under the Iowa Constitution, the Iowa Supreme Court ruled Friday.
The read more
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Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals upends Voting Rights Act precedents on who has the right to challenge laws based on race or color
In the nearly six decades since the Voting Rights Act was enacted by Congress, federal judges have assumed private parties could bring suits in federal court to enforce the law that prohibits state or federal election policies that deny the right to vote based on race or color.
That assumption was upended in a Nov. 20 de …
Edited body camera video should not have been admitted in OWI trial, Iowa Supreme Court rules
An edited video from a police officer’s body camera leading jurors to conclude a drunk-driving suspect failed a preliminary breath test should not have been allowed into evidence, the Iowa Supreme Court said in a ruling handed down Nov. 17 …
October 2023 Opinion Roundup
The Iowa Supreme Court entered opinions in seven cases during October 2023. You can find in-depth summaries of two cases at the following links:
- In the Matter of V.H., 22-0952
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Iowa Supreme Court to hear arguments in seven cases Nov. 15 and 16
The Iowa Supreme Court will hear arguments in seven cases Nov. 15 and 16. Eight other cases will be submitted to the Court without oral argument. Following are brief summaries of the November cases. [Go to On Brief’s “Cases in the Pipeline” page to read briefs filed in …
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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.