MASON CITY – A campaign by the Iowa State Bar Association to defend all Iowa judges and justices who stand for retention in November is coming to Mason City Wednesday morning.
According to the Bar’s website, ISBA leadership has rented a mobile media truck to travel to the 17 Iowa cities and towns being visited by the Family Leader organization as part of its vote no on Justice Wiggins tour. The purpose of the “Yes Iowa Judges” tour is to give Iowans the truth about the state’s judges and judicial system as a counter-balance to the misinformation promulgated by Vander Plaats and the Family Leader.
The truck will be outfitted with a 12-foot-by-6-foot display on each side stating: “Yes Freedom, Yes Liberty, Yes Iowa Judges,” and a 6-foot-by-6-foot display on the back with the ISBA logo and the website where citizens can go for accurate information about the retention election process and the judges up for retention.
The campaign was approved by the ISBA Board of Governors at its Fall quarterly meeting, and is being implemented immediately, according to the Iowa State Bar’s website.
“We are fortunate in Iowa,” the website proclaims, “that our merit system has produced some of the most fair and impartial judges in the country. To keep it that way and to keep politics out of our courts – we need all ISBA members to get involved.
There will be a demonstration in Mason City at Central Park, 10 1st Street SW, at 9:30 a.m.
Also in Mason City in Central Park at the same time, the “NO Wiggins Bus Tour” sponsored by the conservative Iowans for Freedom group, will demonstrate.
According to its website, “Iowa for Freedom stands up against judicial activism in the Iowa Supreme Court and was responsible for the successful effort to remove three activist Iowa Supreme Court justices on November 2, 2010.”
I agree. The judges should be voted out at every election so we do not end up with the mess we have with our career congress. Nip it in the bud.
I say term-limit all judges by voting each and every one out each election.
What you will end up with as a result of that kind of plan, is judges that become politicized.
These judges are ranked on their results on the bench, by the lawyers who practice before them. One cannot expect the voters to know or understand the standards which apply to them.
Do they follow the rules that apply to cases? Do they understand an support in practice the Federal Rules of Evidence? Do they apply precedents and standards as decided by the higher courts? Do they fairly follow sentencing guidelines where they exist?
Most people don’t even know what those are, much less how they apply to a judges record. With few exceptions, non-lawyers do not practice before a judge, lawyers do. That is what makes their evaluations relevant.
And to be sure, The likes of Mr. Vander Plaats has not one clue about how law is practiced, or adjudicated. That makes him the poorest choice to decide if a judge should be retained, or continue to serve on the bench.