by Rox Laird | July 9, 2020
Municipal ordinances created to protect residents’ civil rights are not enforceable in state court, the Iowa Supreme Court ruled June 30. The Iowa Civil Rights Act authorizes the state Civil Rights Commission to issue “right to sue” letters to complainants, who are...
by Rox Laird | April 22, 2020
Iowa law requires that criminal defendants who invoke a “stand your ground” defense must have informed law-enforcement authorities of the use of deadly force. That requirement, on its face, may or may not violate a defendant’s constitutional rights, but a defendant’s...
by Rox Laird | March 30, 2020
Two Wapello County residents who brought nuisance suits against operators of hog confinements and later voluntarily dropped them must pay the defendants’ costs, including legal fees, the Iowa Supreme Court ruled March 27. Michael Merrill and Karen Jo Frescoln were...
by Rox Laird | February 11, 2020
Homeowners may have to pay a contractor for labor and materials in a mechanic’s lien foreclosure, but they cannot be forced to forfeit their homestead to cover the contractor’s legal fees, the Iowa Supreme Court ruled. That is, however, unless the homesteader waits...
by Rox Laird | November 12, 2019
What is a non-profit institution to do when a gift becomes a burden? That is more or less the predicament Coe College found itself in when it learned that a collection of Grant Wood paintings given to the Cedar Rapids school decades earlier, and which had grown...
