Comments on: A Runaway Judiciary & Gubernatorial Authority

By: Gronstal Doesn’t Trust Iowans or the General Assembly to Vote « Des Moines Register Staff Blogs | The Des Moines Register

Sun, 20 Dec 2009 03:41:32 +0000

[...] have that so he’d rather leave the state to a judicial oligarchy and be derelict in his duty to provide a legislative remedy. If he wants marriage to be redefined in this state then by all means have enough guts to go [...]

By: Shane Vander Hart

Shane Vander Hart — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 05:44:11 +0000

@Eric Goranson, Yes I think that would send the clearest message than anything else we could do. You could even take the marriage issue out of it and focus instead of the separation of powers issue, that we can't allow our Supreme Court justices to violate the very constitution they are supposed to uphold and interpret by legislating from the bench.

By: Eric Goranson

Eric Goranson — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 04:55:47 +0000

Good post, Shane. Interesting stuff. The people need to send a message to the Judiciary by getting involved in the retention process. That would send the snowball downhill, I think.

By: Shane Vander Hart

Shane Vander Hart — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 23:47:29 +0000

@ChrisB, I agree that their needs to be further checks and balances on judicial branch power as it is imbalanced. I just have a problem with Vander Plaats approach, and I am not a huge fan of executive orders unless it is dealing with executive branch policies, etc. Anything that stretches beyond that is, in effect, law and out of bounds of executive branch authority which I believe his executive order would be.

By: ChrisB

ChrisB — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 13:14:58 +0000

As the Federalist Papers show, the founders didn’t realize they were laying the groundwork for an all-powerful judiciary. In fact, they believed quite the opposite.

But for some reason we’ve accepted the judiciary’s word that what they say, as opposed to the other “equal” branches, goes.

We need to start balancing the judiciaries. Even if it took an almost impossible to achieve super-majority (e.g., 70-90%), the Congress/legislature + the executive should be able to vacate a judicial decision. I’d love to see that constitutional amendment on some state ballots. In time it might even make it into the federal Constitution.
ChrisB´s last blog ..Christmas Spirit

By: You Can’t Violate the Constitution to Protect It « Des Moines Register Staff Blogs | The Des Moines Register

Sat, 12 Dec 2009 21:38:58 +0000

[...] I’ve been considering Bob Vander Plaats idea to issue an executive order to place a stay on the Iowa Supreme Court’s decision to strike down the Defense of Marriage Act until the Legislature acts. As much as I am against the Court’s decision, I find Vander Plaats’ idea wanting constitutionally and it would only serve to weaken the Gove…. [...]