Possessing a valid medical marijuana card issued by another state is not enough to stop someone from being convicted of possession of marijuana in Iowa, a divided Iowa Supreme Court decided in a ruling handed down on Friday. The 4-3 decision came in the case of Pamela Middlekauff, who was convicted of possession of a […]
Iowa Supreme Court
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Report: Ernst to push for nationwide abortion restrictions as Supreme Court prepares to overturn Roe v. Wade
Hours before Politico published an apparent leaked draft of a U.S. Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade and declaring there is no constitutionally protected right to choose an abortion in the United States, the Washington Post reported a group of Republican senators plan to introduce a nationwide restriction on abortions after the Supreme Court […]
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Iowa Supreme Court puts Abby Finkenauer back on the June primary ballot
Abby Finkenauer will appear on the ballot in the June Democratic primary for U.S. Senate, thanks to a decision handed down by the Iowa Supreme Court on Friday. The court voted 7-0 to reverse a Polk County District Court ruling that upheld objections brought by two Republicans to three signatures on Finkenauer’s nomination petition. Without […]
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Iowa Supreme Court to decide by Friday if Abby Finkenauer will be on the primary ballot
“If you strip away the noise and the admittedly high stakes, this is ultimately a narrow question of statutory interpretation,” Assistant Solicitor General Sam Langholz said at the beginning of oral arguments before the Iowa Supreme Court on Wednesday afternoon. “Does a signature on a nominating petition missing a date get to be counted?” The […]
Posted inEastern Iowa
Iowa Supreme Court rules in favor of transgender worker in landmark employment discrimination case
In a decision handed down Friday morning, the Iowa Supreme Court unanimously upheld a 2019 jury verdict that found the Iowa Civil Rights Act prohibits discrimination against transgender people based on their gender identity. Jesse Vroegh, a transgender man and former Iowa Department of Corrections (IDOC) employee, sued that agency and the Iowa Department of […]
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As Iowa GOP leaders eagerly await Roe being overturned, abortion rights advocates plan a rally on the Pentacrest
There will be a rally to support abortion rights on the University of Iowa Pentacrest at noon on Saturday. The event, organized by Repros for Iowa, Corridor Community Action Network and Iowa City Democratic Socialists of America, is in response to Wednesday’s hearing in the U.S. Supreme Court in which the Republican-appointed majority clearly indicated […]
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Judge strikes down Iowa’s ban on Medicaid covering gender-affirming medical procedures
In 2019, the Iowa Supreme Court struck down a state regulation prohibiting Medicaid from covering gender-affirming procedures deemed medically necessary, finding it violated the Iowa Civil Rights Act (ICRA). Republicans in the state legislature responded by passing a statute intended to amend the ICRA and make that sort of discrimination legal by prohibiting “any state […]
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Iowa Senate Republicans vote on party line to reject first set of redistricting maps
Republicans in the Iowa Senate rejected the first set of redistricting maps drawn up by the nonpartisan Legislative Services Agency (LSA) on Tuesday. The vote in the Senate broke down along party lines, with all 32 Republicans opposing the maps that reset the boundaries of the districts in the Iowa House and Senate, as well […]
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Mask mandate issued for all Iowa courthouses by Chief Justice Susan Christensen
Chief Justice of the Iowa Supreme Court Susan Christensen issued a face mask requirement for all of Iowa’s courthouses on Friday afternoon, which requires everyone entering a courthouse to wear a mask, regardless of vaccination status. “This requirement applies statewide and does not depend on a particular county’s or area’s positivity rate or transmission status,” […]
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Gov. Kim Reynolds asks the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn Roe v. Wade
Kim Reynolds, acting in her official capacity as governor of Iowa, has requested the United States Supreme Court, asking the justices to overturn half a century of legal precedence and rule that the U.S. Constitution does not protect the right to choose an abortion. Reynolds was one of 11 Republican governors who signed an amicus […]
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Transgender Iowan sues to overturn state’s ban on Medicaid coverage for medically necessary procedures
A lawsuit challenging Iowa’s ban on allowing Medicaid to pay for gender-affirming procedures deemed necessary by a doctor was filed in Polk County District Court on Thursday by the ACLU of Iowa and the national ACLU LGBTQ & HIV Project. The groups filed the lawsuit on behalf of Aiden Vasquez, a transgender resident of southeast […]
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Iowa Supreme Court hears arguments in state’s attempt to ban funding for Planned Parenthood’s sex education programs
The Iowa Supreme Court heard oral arguments on Tuesday in the state’s appeal of a district court ruling that a 2019 law blocking Planned Parenthood of the Heartland (PPH) from receiving government grants to conduct sex education programs for Iowa teens was unconstitutional. At the time the ban on PPH was passed in 2019, the […]
