Iowa justice speaks on same-sex ruling, praises 'ability to change'

One of the biggest changes in Iowa in the last decade was the Iowa Supreme Court ruling that legalized same-sex marriages in the state.

Iowa Supreme Court Justice Mark Cady, who wrote the decision in Varnum v. Brien, spoke at Luther College in Decorah Tuesday night about the role of the judiciary in changes in society.

Cady told a crowd of 100 people that Americans have had strongly held beliefs in the past that they have decided to cast aside, including several involving race and gender. "This ability to change is our strength," Cady told the audience.

Cady, who was appointed to the Iowa Supreme Court in 1998, noted that the U.S. and Iowa constitutions set up a process to allow change. In both cases, the court system has "a simple and quiet ability" to consider whether these changes should be made, he said.

In the case of Varnum v. Brien, the Iowa Supreme Court was asked to examine whether society's previous reasons to deny same-sex marriages were still correct. Cady says the court examined the evidence and concluded sexual orientation was a trait people can't change, much like the color of their skin or their gender. That entitled same-sex couples to the same constitutional protections extended to other groups, said Cady.

In response to an audience question about whether the ruling represented judicial activism, Cady responded that he grew up knowing only opposite-sex couples and that, had he been an activist, he would have voted in favor of his previous experience.

But the court ruling, he said, is a good example of what judicial decision making should be like. He said the lawsuit asked the justices to consider whether the beliefs that they and the rest of society had were still valid, and the justices concluded that they were not.

Cady says the ruling is a good example of how change comes about in a constitutional way.

-- Paul Scott, news correspondent