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The article discusses the court case Burnett v. Smith in which the Iowa Supreme Court declined to recognize an independent clause of action for money damages under its constitution and overruled a related case. It describes the details of the case filed by garbage truck driver Cory Burnett against Iowa Department of Transportation officer Philip Smith. It examines the court's observation that the Iowa judiciary of the mid-19th century did not recognize direct constitutional claims for damages.

Between 2010-2015, the Iowa Supreme Court decided multiple cases under article 1, section 8 of the Iowa Constitution. However, the court's reasons for deciding issues under the Iowa Constitution were less than principled. The Iowa Supreme Court's current practice of spontaneously interpreting the Iowa Constitution raises significant jurisprudential problems: it does not necessarily require lawyers to adequately argue, brief, and preserve state constitutional issues for appeal, it does not prioritize federal or state constitutional claims in any order, and the approach seems arbitrary on its face. A more principled approach to state constitutional interpretation could remedy these issues. The primacy approach is an approach to state constitutional interpretation under which state supreme courts decide issues under the state constitution when the parties adequately argue and brief the state constitutional issue. This Note argues that the Iowa Supreme Court should adopt the primacy approach to state constitutional interpretation to continue the Court's role as an important part of the United States' federalist system and an imperative protector of Iowans' individual rights, to improve the efficiency of state constitutional interpretation, and to improve the process by which the Iowa Supreme Court reaches issues under the Iowa Constitution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Iowa Supreme Court adopted an unpopular but unanimous ruling in Varnum v. Brien, which established same-sex marriage. Using a unique panel study conducted immediately before and after the court decision, we evaluate the impact of policy adoption on changing opinions on minority rights. The signaling of new social norms pressured some respondents to modify their expressed attitudes. We find that respondents whose demographic characteristics would predict support for marriage equality, but previously did not, were more likely to shift their opinions to be consistent with the new state law. A policy feedback mechanism may be responsible for the rapid diffusion of laws legalizing same-sex in the states. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This Note explores the framing of political advocacy surrounding Iowa's 2010 judicial-retention election through a content analysis of letters to the editor in Iowa newspapers published in the three months preceding the election. In November 2010, Iowa voters denied retention to all three Iowa Supreme Court justices on the ballot. The election took place against the backdrop of a charged debate focused on Varnum v. Brien--a recent Iowa Supreme Court decision invalidating Iowa's statutory prohibition of same-sex marriage--and an unprecedented campaign to oust the justices on account of that decision. Because judicial-retention elections fall at the intersection of law, public policy, and politics, this study provides insight for the bench, the bar, advocates, and political and legal scholars as they seek to understand the debate over same-sex marriage and Iowa's 2010 retention election. The data collected in this study paint a picture of the political dialogue between pro- and antiretention factions as it played out across Iowa newspapers' opinion and editorial pages, ultimately demonstrating that pro- and anti-retention advocates framed the retention election in substantively different ways. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article explores the controversy surrounding the adoption in Iowa of a version of the Missouri Plan of merit-based judicial selection. In the judicial selection, supreme court justices are given a retention vote on the statewide ballot. However, the vote becomes controversial when the justices declare in the case, Varnum versus Brien, that the state's ban on same-sex marriage is null and void.

Summarizes cases decided by the U.S. Supreme Court in March-April 1981. Constitutionality of an Iowa statute that restricts certain trucks that use the state's highways; Discrimination issues related to the closing of a street between an all-white neighborhood and a predominantly Afro-American neighborhood in Memphis, Tennessee; Equal pay suit brought by female airline attendants.

The article presents information related to rulings of various court cases in the U.S. It states that the court held a state statute of limitations of Iowa applying solely to actions under federal statutes invalid. An Iowa statute prescribed a six months period of limitation on all claims arising under Federal statutes, which contain no limitation provision. Iowa Laws, 1943, c. 267. After that time had expired, the plaintiff sued in a federal district court for overtime pay under the FLSA, which provides no period of limitation. The court held that the Iowa statute does not bar the plaintiff's claim inasmuch as a state cannot place a special limitation on federal statutes.

Discusses the 1966 ruling of the Supreme Court of Iowa on a case between Painter and Barrister regarding child custody between a father and grandparents. Root of the dispute; Award of the custody to the father by the trial court; Reversal of the decision by the court.

Presents the judicial ruling in Fundermann v. Mickelson by the Supreme Court of Iowa, abolishing the right to recover for alienation of affections. Belief of the court, suggesting these lawsuits are useless; Judicial opinion given.

Discusses the ruling of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Iowa that the wholesale, random, and arbitrary warrantless searches of rock concert patrons by off-duty policemen was impermissible under the Fourth Amendment. Court's belief that the searches could not be justified on the basis of the stop-and-frisk doctrine or on the ground of the patron's consent; Failure to forewarn patrons of possible searches.

Reports on the 1975 decision of the U.S. Supreme Court in 'Sosna v. Iowa,' which raised a question of mootness as well as the constitutional question of the validity of the state residence requirement for divorce. Opinions of the justices on the case.

The article reports on the court's ruling on the case Drinkall v. Used Car Rentals Inc. Drinkall, an Iowa resident filed a case against Used Car Rentals Inc., the owner of the car driven by Bayles, who injured Drinkall in an accident in Iowa. Bayles and Used cars were from Nebraska and Drinkall was from Iowa, the case was heard in federal court under the diversity of citizenship jurisdiction. The jury in the Federal District Court for the Southern District of Iowa, found the rental car company liable. The defendant appealed that the district court should use the Nebraska law instead of the Iowa law. The appellate court found that the district court was correct in using the Iowa law, since it is the one prevailing in the state where the accident happened.

This article focuses on the ruling of the Iowa Supreme Court on the case "State of Iowa versus Lyon," which tackles the issue of self-incrimination. The court held that in a prosecution for perjury, in which defendant testified that he did not sell intoxicating liquor to a named person on a certain date and did not accept money thereon, a marked one-dollar bill given by an officer to another for the purpose of buying liquor of defendant was admissible in evidence. The court allows the right to require a defendant charged with crime to stand up before the court for the purpose of identification.

The article presents a court case wherein the Iowa State University, the owner of Iowa Veterinary Specialties which filed a lawsuit against its former employees who were the owner of Iowa Veterinary Referral Center. In response to the lawsuit, these employees also filed a countersuit, claiming that the institution desires to take the full control of pet care in the region. The district court issued a preliminary ruling which entails the noncompetition agreements between the two clinics.

Presents the case, McDonald v. Farley and Loetscher Manufacturing Co., regarding restriction on sale of corporate stock in Iowa. Facts of the case; Ruling on the case; Court cases that served as precedent to the court's ruling.

Presents the case, Sweitzer v. Fisher, regarding mandamus for diploma for an unqualified student who was allowed to take part in graduation exercises in Iowa. Facts of the case; Ruling on the case; Court cases that served as precedent to the court's ruling.

The article presents information about the case State v. Wilson, in Iowa. A jury were instructed that the fact that they had power to return a verdict on finding a lesser crime or acquittal is alone no excuse for using such power. The lower conviction or an acquittal should not rest on the notion that the jury could do as they pleased arbitrarily. Objection was taken on the ground that the jurors were at liberty to acquit at pleasure and that is exactly what they had a legal right to do. It was held that while the jury had the power to act arbitrarily, they had no right, either legal or moral, to do so. They do had the right to say which of the witnesses they would believe, and which they will not believe, and had a right to disbelieve all of them.