Wednesday was a difficult day for The American Independent News Network, which is the larger entity that operates The Iowa Independent. Our chief executive and founder announced two of our sister sites would close and their content would be moved to The American Independent.
A recently introduced bill could have far-reaching impact on the U.S. sugar industry, including American Crystal Sugar, a farmer-owned cooperative that locked out 1,300 Midwest workers on Aug. 1.
The chairman for Herman Cain’s Iowa effort says the campaign “relied more on the word of farmers than Washington regulators” in deciding to run an ad containing claims the Environmental Protection Agency says are false.
The Iowa Senate will remain under the control of a slim 26-25 Democratic majority when it reconvenes in January 2012.
Iowa Supreme Court Justice Marsha Ternus called the retention vote she and two other Justices will face this fall a test of whether Iowans believe in a fair and impartial court system.
Granting a rare interview to the Iowa Public Radio program “The Exchange,” Ternus said proposals by Republican lawmakers to do away with the merit-based system of appointing judges in favor of direct election is a step backwards for the state.
Iowa Chief Justice Marsha Ternus
“Iowans were bright enough in the 1960s to go to merit selection for judges,” Ternus said. “So our judges are chosen on the basis of their professional qualifications, their integrity, and their ability to do the job. If we go to political elections it would change the entire nature of judiciary.”
Following the court’s April decision that legalized same-sex marriage, the Iowa Supreme Court has become a political punching bag for conservative lawmakers and Republican gubernatorial candidates. Three bills were introduced this year dealing with the courts — one calling for election of judges, one mandating geographic diversity of judges and one that outlawed use of precedent.
There have also been calls by Republicans to vote out Ternus and Justices Michael Streit and David Bake, who face retention votes this November. Ternus said retention votes were not designed to be a referendum on a particular decision.
“Because we have a merit system, that ‘yes’ or ‘no’ vote should be exercised on the basis of ‘Is the judge performing his or her duties competently and as one would expect a fair and impartial decision maker to perform those duties,’” she said. “I’m confident that the people of Iowa want to retain the system that we have and make it work in the way it was intended to work.”
Ternus said justices can’t formally campaign for their retention but they can advocate for the system and explain to citizens how it is supposed to work and what the nature and basis of a retention election is.
“I think it is our professional duty to maybe do some civics lessons and remind people that the third branch of government was by design a non-political branch of government so that judges make their decisions based on the Rule of Law,” she said. “It’s easy to take what we have for granted. But I think each generation has to stand up for what we believe in and for the integrity of the system of fair and impartial judiciary. That will be our test this year to see if Iowans stand up for the system that we have.”
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