Hate triumphed over checks and balances

In voting not to retain three Supreme Court justices, some 500,000 Iowans indicated that they hate gay and lesbian people more than they love our constitutional system of checks and balances.

I do not find this fact remarkable or surprising. In the 1990s, the Legislature voted to make Iowa law explicit in discriminating against same-sex marriage rights.

Reading the plain language of equal protection Iowa's founders placed in the Iowa Constitution, “All laws of a general nature shall have a uniform operation; the general assembly shall not grant to any citizen, or class of citizens, privileges or immunities, which, upon the same terms shall not equally belong to all citizens,” the Supreme Court exercised its role as a check on the Legislature by unanimously ruling marriage discrimination to be unconstitutional.

I am proud that some legislative leaders are standing up against putting discrimination into our Constitution.

Dave Tingwald

Iowa City