Amendments to Iowa Code Chapter 20 that substantially reduced the collective bargaining rights of most state and local government employees did not violate union members’ equal protection or free association rights under the Iowa Constitution, the Iowa Supreme Court ruled May 19. Public employee unions…
The Carroll Airport Commission ordered a farmer to remove a 12-story grain elevator erected near its runway because it presents a flight hazard. The Federal Aviation Administration, however, issued a contrary opinion saying the elevator could remain. The Iowa Supreme Court, in a decision handed…
Is a wind farm with 170 windmills spread over 80 square miles a single power plant or a collection of separate power plants? According to the Iowa Utilities Board, it is the latter, and the Iowa Supreme Court deferred to that statutory interpretation in a…
The Iowa Supreme Court has clarified two previous rulings that reached seemingly contradictory positions on whether police investigative reports must be made public under the Iowa Open Records Act. The clarification came in a ruling handed down April 5 in Jerime Eron Mitchell and Bracken…
Sentencing courts must know how much a convicted offender is reasonably able to pay before ordering payment of restitution to the State, the Iowa Supreme Court ruled in three separate cases March 22. In all three cases, the sentencing courts ordered offenders to pay restitution…
A plaintiff suing former coworkers at the Federal Home Loan Bank of Des Moines for defamation waited too long to file suit in Polk County District Court because she failed to act on information she knew or should have known that could have formed the basis for a defamation claim before the statute of limitations expired, the Iowa Supreme Court held in a Jan. 9 decision.
Does a foreign corporation consent to the jurisdiction of Iowa’s courts when it registers with the Secretary of State to do business in this state, appoints an agent in Iowa for service of process, and is served with notice of a lawsuit through its Iowa…
The Iowa Supreme Court entered opinions in four cases in October 2025. At the following link, you can read On Brief’s analysis of State v. Manning, concerning whether an officer’s body camera capture of a video being played for the officer qualifies as admissible evidence, by Rox Laird. The remaining opinions from October are summarized below.
The Iowa Supreme Court in a decision issued Dec. 23 reaffirmed its 2024 ruling that allowing testimony by minors in criminal trials via one-way closed-circuit video violates defendants’ right to confront their accusers under 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.
