Articles of impeachment were filed for Iowa Supreme Court Justices: Brent Appel, Mark Cady, Daryl Hecht and David Wiggins late Thursday afternoon. These are the four justices who were not on the ballot in November when three of their members lost their retention vote. The articles were sponsored by State Representatives Tom Shaw (R-Laurens), Dwayne Alons (R-Hull), Betty DeBoef (R-Des Moines), Glen Massie (R-Des Moines), and Kim Pearson (R-Pleasant Hill).
Shaw when upon the filing of the articles of impeachment said, “In order to protect the integrity of our form of government, we must maintain the separation of powers as is required by Article III, Section 1, of the Iowa Constitution. This is our sworn duty as the representatives of the people, who made their will quite well known when they removed three of the Varnum v. Brien Supreme Court justices in the last retention election. Clearly, by changing the simple meaning of the word “marriage,” and attempting to legislate, the remaining four judges committed malfeasance in office by greatly exceeding the scope of their lawful authority. Therefore, if the moral integrity of each individual member of the Iowa Legislature, and the institution as a whole, are to be preserved, these judges must be impeached and removed permanently from the bench.”
Even if the Iowa House does decide to impeach the justices, the chances of the Iowa Senate with a Democrat majority voting to convict is between zilch and none. Regardless, as I have said before, the conversation about judicial review needs to take place. I hope we can have that debate.
