Kim Reynolds signs bill giving governors more power over Iowa Supreme Court selection

Gov. Kim Reynolds now has more power over a panel that helps select judges and justices to Iowa's top courts after she signed legislation Wednesday changing Iowa's decades-old judicial nominating system.

The new law allows the governor to make nine appointments to the state nominating commission that helps choose Iowa Supreme Court justices and Court of Appeals judges, giving Reynolds immediate control over the 17-member panel. She signed the legislation as part of a budget bill.

"I am proud to sign this compromise legislation reforming our process for selecting judges to give all Iowans a greater voice in the process," Reynolds said in a statement. "For the first time, a majority of the state nominating commission will be representing the people of Iowa instead of the bar and bench."

The commission interviews applicants and sends the governor the names of finalists to appoint as justices and judges. The previous setup gave the governor eight appointments to the commission and allowed Iowa's lawyers to elect eight others to the commission, with a current member of the Iowa Supreme Court serving as the commission's chair.

Under the new system, the commission will elect a chair from among its members.

Reynolds, a Republican, is allowed to immediately name her ninth appointment to the commission, giving her majority control. The governor's appointments to the commission remain subject to confirmation by the Iowa Senate and the terms of the current members of the commission are not affected by the law change.

Republicans spoke all session about changing the way judges are selected, arguing that there should be more accountability to the public in the system. They have criticized lawyers as an "interest group" with outsized influence on the process, although the final proposal leaves in place the commission members chosen by lawyers. The current system for selecting judges was added to the Iowa Constitution in the early 1960s.

Democrats have accused Republicans of changing the system because of court rulings they disagreed with on same-sex marriage and abortion. Reynolds signed the bill in a private ceremony, accompanied by Republican lawmakers and lobbyists for conservative organizations, including The Family Leader, a faith-based group that led an effort to oust three Iowa Supreme Court justices over a 2009 decision legalizing same-sex marriage.

Reynolds has already named two justices to the Iowa Supreme Court since she was sworn in as governor in 2017, and last month filled two vacancies on the Court of Appeals.

During floor debate over the bill, Senate Democrats said the changes would add more politics into Iowa's court system and objected to the language being included in a budget bill during the final days of the legislative session. Republicans originally proposed the plan as a more expansive standalone bill.

Sen. Rob Hogg, D-Cedar Rapids, called the proposal "a Republican power grab" and said he believes it to be unconstitutional.

The more sweeping changes originally proposed for the judicial nominating process would have also changed the commissions that help select lower court judges. That proposal would have eliminated lawyers' role in electing members of the commissions and allowed top lawmakers of both parties, as well as the governor, to appoint members to the commissions.

A version of the legislation passed the Senate in March, but was watered down before its final passage as part of the budget bill.

"We made some pretty extensive changes in the way the judicial nominating commission is made up. This amendment waters them down significantly, but it’s still better than the present policy," said Sen. Julian Garrett, R-Indianola, during floor debate on April 27.

The language also requires the Iowa Supreme Court to elect its chief justice every two years, with the possibility of re-election. Previously, the chief justice, whom the justices elect from their own members, served for the entirety of the justice's eight-year term on the court.

All Democrats in the House opposed the changes. One Republican in the House, Rep. Megan Jones of Sioux Rapids, voted with the Democrats against adding the language as an amendment to the bill, but voted for the final budget bill.

In the Senate, one Democrat, Sen. Bill Dotzler of Waterloo, joined all Republicans in voting to add several amendments, including the judicial selection changes, to the Senate bill. He ultimately voted against the full bill.

"I voted for the House version because it watered down the Senate’s version of the judicial nominating procedures. But it was still bad enough that I voted against final passage of the bill," Dotzler said in a statement to the Register.

A February Des Moines Register/Mediacom Iowa Poll found Iowans preferred to keep the state’s current judicial selection system by a 21-point margin, with 54 percent favoring the current system, 33 percent favoring change, and 13 percent not sure.