Litigation

Branstad Prepares to Interview Court Finalists

By Peter Hardin

Iowa Republican Gov. Terry Branstad said Monday he does not plan to quiz nine candidates for three state Supreme Court openings about their views on the court’s controversial marriage ruling.

The governor said he intends, according to a Mason City Globe Gazette article, to “focus instead on the candidates’ fairness, temperament, and knowledge and experience, and also their philosophy with respecting and recognizing the fact there are three branches of government and the powers of each are limited and respecting and recognizing there are times when the court needs to exercise judicial restraint.”

In November, social conservatives who were angry about a high court ruling that legalized same-sex marriage voted to remove three justices from the court. Last week, a screening commission completed interviews of 60 candidates and made recommendations to the governor for his appointment (see Gavel Grab).

Other media reports and commentary focused on the panel’s recommendations and on its publicly held interviews. A Des Moines Register article reported that law professor Angela Onwuachi-Willig of the University of Iowa would become the state high court’s first minority jurist if confirmed, and that she was the only minority candidate among the nine.

Rekha Basu wrote in a commentary in the Des Moines Register that the candidates’ interviews made for “fascinating” viewing. She praised the increased transparency that was adopted for the process:

“[A]n unvarnished view of the proceedings, made possible by the first-time use of video, should reinforce confidence in its integrity and dispel concerns about bias. It showed the process is wide open, and anyone who meets basic qualifications will get a fair hearing.”

A sharply differing view came in the “Iowa Republican” blog, where Nathan Tucker wrote that the commission “showed how personal connections, geography, race, gender, and ideology played a role in their selection process.”

Full post as published by The Gavel on January 31, 2011 (boomark / email).