The Iowa Sentinel Dec. 16, 2010 Al Bregar 
A little more than one month ago, on November 2nd, the voters of Iowa sent a very clear message that they will no longer tolerate the judicial activism that has come to characterize the Supreme Court of Iowa. For all intents and purposes that message was a loud and very clear order to Iowa’s highest court to cease and desist the unconstitutional behavior that has been so prevalent in the rulings of that court as of late. However, as Nathan Tucker at The Iowa Republican has so painstakingly pointed out; this is not the case. Instead the Iowa Supreme Court has continued to flagrantly ignore the limitations upon their power as set forth in the Constitution of the State of Iowa. Indeed it seems that the prominent message sent by the voters of the state have fallen upon deaf ears. While the retention vote, such as the one that was most recently undertaken, is the preferred method for the removal of a rogue jurist; the recent rulings undertaken by the court leave us in a little bit of a quandary. You see, while we did successfully remove three of the seven activist jurists we are left with four Justices that were just as wrong. If we were to wait until their retention votes come up they would still have many years in which they can inflict harm on the state’s Constitution. However there is another method by which we can liberate the judicial branch from these crusading magistrates. In fact Kent Sorenson (voiced during his interview on Deace in the Afternoon on Monday) was the first elected official that I have heard that has had the courage to support such measure. In fact it would seem that the last best hope, next to the retention vote, for forcing the Supreme Court back within the limitations set forth by the Constitution would be to enact “Articles of Impeachment.” I have since learned that a small group of newly elected members of the Iowa House of Representatives have been drafting the legislation necessary to begin the process of impeaching the four remaining Supreme Court Justices. Tom Shaw (District 8), Glen Massie (District 74), and Kim Pearson (District 42) have begun working in earnest to have the bill invoking the impeachment process against Supreme Court Justices Mark Cady, Brent Appel, Daryl Hecht, and David Wiggins. Once the impeachment process has begun it is up to the Iowa Senate to try the case and, if found guilty, pass sentence upon the jurists. After the results of the retention vote in November it should be safe to assume that this measure would have the support of the majority of voting Iowan’s. What remains to be seen is if those same people that were motivated to reject the court’s rampant activism during the general election will be motivated enough to put heavy pressure on both their Representatives and their Senators to support the bill. Another roadblock in the impeachment process is Senate Minority Leader Mike Gronstal. It is entirely likely that he would make every attempt to block the attempt and thwart any legislation that would seek to punish the Supreme Court. It is heartening to see these three freshman Representatives getting down in the trenches. They are getting their hands dirty while attempting to fulfill their campaign pledges of holding the judiciary accountable to the Constitution. In closing I implore you to contact your state Representative and your state Senator to support the “Articles of Impeachment.” The document may have an uphill battle, but it is a battle that an active grassroots can win. This important article published on AIPNews.com with the kind permission of the author.
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