As Iowans, our motto is: “Our liberties we prize and our rights we will maintain.” More than a mere slogan, it is a vow and promise to all Iowans now and into the future. It is troubling when the Iowa Supreme Court decides that it will not prize previously recognized liberties and chips away at the rights they are supposed to be maintaining.
In 2018, the Iowa Supreme Court recognized the right of a pregnant person to terminate her pregnancy was protected by our state constitution. However, in a decision this year, a new majority of the court overturned that finding—damaging our rights as Iowans.
This general election, there is a list of judges upon whom we may vote whether or not to retain them on the bench. The only two Iowa Supreme Court Justices on the ballot for retention are two of the justices who decided to take Constitutional protections for Iowans’ rights. By voting to diminish the rights of Iowans, Justices Oxley and McDermott demonstrated that they are unsuited to service on the Iowa Supreme Court. Justice McDermott even wrote that the decision did not go far enough in limiting Iowans’ rights.
Apart from any feelings about the legality or morality of abortion, the decision to overturn the 2018 precedent marks a willingness by the court majority to diminish our rights when they may conflict with the religious prejudices of the justices. Iowans pioneered free speech rights for high school students in Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District (U.S. Supreme Court). Iowa pioneered same sex marriage in the Iowa Supreme Court case of Varnum v. Brien. Will free speech for students, same sex marriage, gun rights, or the right to contraception be next? Are we to be beholden to the religious whims of the Iowa Supreme Court justices?
Justices McDermott and Oxley have demonstrated that they will not serve us well on the Court because they will not protect our rights under the Constitution of Iowa. I have voted against their retention on the Supreme court. I hope all the other Iowans here will also do so.Please vote against their retention.