Vander Plaats predicts ‘clean sweep’ in ousting Iowa justices

Conservative activist Bob Vander Plaats on Friday predicted a “clean sweep” in ousting three Iowa Supreme Court justices – an outcome that he hopes will build pressure on Republican Terry Branstad to issue an executive order halting same-sex marriages if he succeeds in defeating Democrat Chet Culver for governor in next Tuesday's election.

Vander Plaats, leader of Iowa For Freedom, said a vote not to retain Iowa Supreme Court Chief Justice Marsha Ternus and associate justices Michael Streit and David Baker, along with a Branstad victory and Republican gains in the Legislature would send a clear signal to the new power structure that the people are demanding action to reverse the April 2009 unanimous court ruling that opened the door to civil marriages for couples of the same gender.

“I think you're going to see a clean house,” he told reporters after Friday's taping of Iowa Public Television's “Iowa Press” show featuring Vander Plaats and former Iowa Supreme Court Justice Mark McCormick discussing next Tuesday's judicial retention vote.

“A message is going to be sent, new leadership is going to be in charge, and I think they're going to expect a leader to lead at that point,” said Vander Plaats, who ran for governor but lost to Branstad in the June 8 primary. “It's going to send a very clear signal to the courts about the separation of power and what their role is. I think it's going to send a very clear signal to the next governor of the state of Iowa, the people want something done.

“Our focus is vote these three justices off the bench,” he said. “And, I think Gov. Branstad has to read into that. He has to read where are the people at on that issue.”

During his primary election bid, Vander Plaats pledged that if he were elected governor, he would immediately issue an executive order in January 2011 that would halt same-sex marriages in Iowa until Iowans have a chance to vote on a constitutional amendment defining marriage as only between one man and one woman.

During the GOP primary, Branstad, a rural Boone lawyer seeking a fifth term as governor after serving from 1983 to 1999, rejected using the executive order in that manner.

“The only thing you do is discredit the governor if you try to do something that's not legal. I disagree with what the court did but the answer to that is to do what 31 other states have done and that is to pass a constitutional amendment. Then, that takes it out of the hands of the court,” Branstad said last May. “If the governor tries to do something that's found to be illegal, it certainly doesn't bring respect for the office. You need to do things that are legal, not promise that you're going to do something that won't work.”

Branstad spokesman Tim Albrecht said Friday it remains Branstad's position that the governor does not have that authority.

McCormick, who was an unsuccessful candidate for governor in the 1998 Democratic primary election, said he was “cautiously optimistic” that an organized “yes” vote effort by supporters of Iowa's judicial system would be successful in getting the three justices and 71 other judges up for retention votes affirmed by the needed simple majority.

“I'm hoping that the more people pay attention to what's really at stake here, in terms of our system and avoiding crippling the system, which is what I think will happen if these folks are successful, the more inclined they will be to vote yes,” said McCormick, who was appointed to the Supreme Court by former Republican Gov. Robert Ray. “We need a stable court system. We ought not to be in this circus atmosphere where the retention of 74 judges is being challenged by these folks.”

During the IPTV show, Vander Plaats countered that “this circus is about we the people having a voice. We are a government of the people, by the people and for the people and we get referred to as the mob, we get referred to as a circus, we get referred to as extreme, 70 percent of the people believe the way that we do.”

Arthur Sanders, a Drake University political science professor, said opponents of same-sex marriage are frustrated that it is legal in Iowa and that the process for reversing the status quo is too slow in the face of a gradual drift toward acceptance, especially among young people.

“The people who are opposed to gay marriage are in a very difficult situation. They need to do something and they need do something quickly, and Iowa has a set of laws that make it really difficult to amend the constitution and to change it,” Sanders noted.

“So they're angry. They're angry at the judges and they're taking it out on them. They're taking it out on anyone in any way they can find it. It's going to be hard for them to be successful in terms of their ultimate goal. They may get these judges out but that's not going to change anything,” he added. “It's something that's going to slowly spread and at some point it's going to reach a critical tipping point.”

If the “no vote” campaign succeeds, Vander Plaats said the vote would “have a ripple effect through the entire country holding courts in check.”

“It would be huge news,” conceded Bonnie Campbell, a former Iowa attorney general and Democratic gubernatorial candidate in 1994 who has worked to preserve Iowa's current judicial merit-election and retention system. “If we vote out three Supreme Court justices, the news of the night will be exactly that.

“We're the envy of the nation in terms of the way we select judges and the quality of the judges who get appointed. To derail that over one decision, it's unwise,” she said. “People are looking at this and saying maybe this isn't something that we want to do.”