Lawsuit argues Iowa law requiring supervisor districts in counties with universities is unconstitutional

IOWA CITY — A lawsuit filed in Johnson County District Court argues that a state law requiring three Iowa counties to change how their supervisors are elected is unconstitutional.

Senate File 75 requires Iowa counties home to one of Iowa’s three Regent universities to elect their county supervisors by districts, rather than at-large. All three counties — Johnson, Black Hawk and Story — currently have Democratic-leaning boards and elect supervisors countywide.

The plaintiffs in the case are a group of 14 voters from the three affected counties. Through their attorney — James Larew of Larew Law Office in Iowa City — they argue that the law limits the powers of voters in the three counties.

The lawsuit lists as defendants Gov. Kim Reynolds, Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate, and the Johnson, Story and Black Hawk boards of supervisors.

Prior to the adoption of Senate File 75 earlier this year, each of Iowa’s 99 counties could decide how its supervisors were elected, either through a decision made by the elected board of supervisors or through a voter-led petition.

But the new law limits the ways voters in the three affected counties can be involved in deciding whether the supervisors are elected through at-large or district system.

Republican legislators who backed the bill, which was signed into law by Gov. Reynolds in April, have said it’s necessary to give more voice to rural Iowans in counties where college students are eligible to vote.

“SF 75, as is clear from its text, singling out Regents universities and from the advocacy of the bill’s supporters in the legislature, by mandating a particular representation plan for these three counties, only, is motivated by an animus against students and also in favor of those who reside at rural addresses. Neither of these purposes, each of which diminishes or enhances the electoral power of one group of voters over another, is constitutionally viable,” the plaintiffs’ petition states.

The plaintiffs also argue that the law gives more power to rural voters in the counties with Regents-led universities, but does not give that same power to rural voters in other counties with private universities and colleges.

“SF 75 stands for the propositions that student voices are somehow less legitimate or less worthy of representation than nonstudent voices, and that people who reside in those Regents university counties, by virtue of their geographical-associational status, alone, are uniquely not deserving of, or are too irresponsible to handle, the choice in election plan that voters in Iowa’s ninety-six other counties are fully able to make,” the petition states.

The plaintiffs are seeking a temporary injunction that would prevent the process of redistricting in the three affected counties from moving forward during the litigation process.

Johnson County in the midst of redistricting process

The Johnson County redistricting committee has submitted its precinct plan, the first step in the process of changing how county supervisors are elected, to the Iowa Secretary of State’s office. The plan certifies the population in each precinct using data from the 2020 census.

The nonpartisan Legislative Services Agency will draw and publish the representation plan by Jan. 1, 2026, showing the five Johnson County districts.

All five seats on the Johnson County Board of Supervisors will be on the ballot in November 2026. In order to create staggered terms, some supervisor districts will be assigned two-year terms and others will be assigned four-year terms. Those terms will begin after next fall’s election.

The county plans to use a random selection process at a public meeting to determine which districts get which term length. That will happen after the plan has been approved and published. After the 2026 election, supervisors will to be elected in staggered four-year terms.

The terms of Board Chair Jon Green and Supervisor V Fixmer-Oraiz are set to end in 2026. Supervisors Rod Sullivan, Mandi Remington and Lisa Green-Douglass were elected to new four-year terms in November 2024, but now face a 2026 election.

Comments: megan.woolard@thegazette.com

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