On Brief

More Analysis on Iowa Right to Life v. Tooker: Less Disclosure, Future Litigation

By Colin Smith Today’s Eighth Circuit ruling in Iowa Right to Life v. Tooker is the most significant Iowa election law case in memory and its legal conclusions will have an impact in Iowa and beyond. As we have discussed before, the Tooker case began when Iowa Right to Life filed a legal challenge to [...]

BREAKING: Eighth Circuit Strikes Down Part of Iowa’s Election Laws As Unconstitutional

By Colin Smith The opinion in Iowa Right to Life v. Tooker—a case we predicted would be a blockbuster—was handed down by the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals this morning. While I have only had the opportunity to skim the lengthy opinion at this point, the following appears to be the result of the case: [...]

Iowa: Where the potential SCOTUS nominees roam

ThinkProgress editor Ian Millhiser speculates today on whom President Obama might select as his next Supreme Court nominee. On the list: Cedar Rapids resident and newly confirmed Eighth Circuit Judge Jane Kelly. So Iowa is now 2 for 2 on Eighth Circuit judges and potential Supreme Court shortlisters. Two active Eighth Circuit judges call Iowa home: [...]

Supreme Court to issue birth-certificate decision tomorrow

Tomorrow, the Iowa Supreme Court will decide whether the presumption of paternity–whereby the husband is presumed to be the father of his wife’s child, and therefore listed on the birth certificate–must apply to a same-sex spouse under the Iowa Constitution’s Equal Protection Clause. The case, Gartner v. Iowa Department of Public Health, was argued in December and [...]

Judge Jane Kelly

By a vote of 96-0, the Senate has confirmed Jane Kelly to serve as a judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit. Kelly, a federal public defender from Cedar Rapids, sailed through the confirmation process. President Obama, a law school classmate of Kelly’s, nominated her on January 31, and the [...]

Koopmans talks Iowa Supreme Court decisions on IPR’s River to River

Last week on Iowa Public Radio’s River to River, On Brief contributor Ryan Koopmans and University of Iowa law professors Song Richardson and Todd Pettys discussed four high-profile cases from the Iowa Supreme Court’s 2012-2013 term: Gartner v. Iowa Department of Public Health, Nelson v. James H. Knight DDS, P.C., State v. Kooima, and State [...]

Iowa Supreme Court splits 4-3 in bar-fight case

Bar Patron A taunts Bar Patron B, but B doesn’t respond in kind. The bar owner, wanting to avoid a fight, kicks A out of the bar, but B, who had remained calm during this entire time, goes out to the parking lot and assaults A. Is the bar liable to A (the initial aggressor) [...]

Anonymous Tips and Juvenile Sentencing: A Criminal End to the Iowa Supreme Court’s 2012-2013 Term

Before wrapping up its 2012-2013 oral argument calendar in April, the Iowa Supreme Court will hear two constitutional cases with potential national consequences. Tomorrow, the seven-member court will travel to Sioux City to hear argument in State v. Kooima. At issue: whether, under the Fourth Amendment, a police officer may stop a vehicle based solely on [...]

Eighth Circuit Grants Rehearing En Banc to Settle Intra-Circuit Split

Today, the Eighth Circuit ordered rehearing en banc in United States v. Bruguier and United States v. Rouillard—two cases that were issued on the same day with opposite results. We reported on Bruguier and Rouillard in December of last year. In both cases the defendants were convicted of “knowingly . . . engaging in a [...]

Eighth Circuit to Decide Whether Iowa’s Campaign-Finance Laws Survive Constitutional Scrutiny

By Colin Smith Just in time for what is sure to be the craziest Iowa election cycle in a generation, Iowa’s campaign-finance laws are under the microscope in a court case that could alter the way corporations get involved in elections. Under current Iowa law, corporations that make political expenditures supporting or opposing candidates are [...]