Carlson v. Wiggins

• Decision Date: 19 January 2011
• Docket Number: No. 4:10–cv–00587.,4:10–cv–00587.
• Citation: 760 F.Supp.2d 811
• Parties: Steven CARLSON, Mary Graznow, Richard Kettells, and William Ramsey, Plaintiffs,v.Justice David WIGGINS,1 in his official capacity as Chairman of the State Judicial Nominating Commission; Jean Dickson, Steven J. Pace, Beth Walker, Amy J. Skogerson, Joseph L. Fitzgibbons, Guy R. Cook, and H. Daniel Holm, Jr., in their official capacities as Elective Members of the State Judicial Nominating Commission; Margaret G. Redenbaugh, Coleen A. Denefe, Mary Beth Lawler, Madalin A. Williams, David C. Cochran, Steven Brody, and Timothy L. Mikkelsen, in their official capacities as Appointive Members of the State Judicial Nominating Commission; and David K. Boyd, in his official capacity as State Court Administrator, Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Southern District of Iowa

760 F.Supp.2d 811

Steven CARLSON, Mary Graznow, Richard Kettells, and William Ramsey, Plaintiffs,

v.Justice David WIGGINS,1 in his official capacity as Chairman of the State Judicial Nominating Commission; Jean Dickson, Steven J. Pace, Beth Walker, Amy J. Skogerson, Joseph L. Fitzgibbons, Guy R. Cook, and H. Daniel Holm, Jr., in their official capacities as Elective Members of the State Judicial Nominating Commission; Margaret G. Redenbaugh, Coleen A. Denefe, Mary Beth Lawler, Madalin A. Williams, David C. Cochran, Steven Brody, and Timothy L. Mikkelsen, in their official capacities as Appointive Members of the State Judicial Nominating Commission; and David K. Boyd, in his official capacity as State Court Administrator, Defendants.

No. 4:10–cv–00587.

United States District Court, S.D. Iowa, Central Division.

Jan. 19, 2011.

James Bopp, Jr., Josiah S. Neeley, Joseph A. Vanderhulst, Bopp Coleson & Bostrom, Terre Haute, IN, William R. Gustoff, Whitaker Hagenow GBMG, Des Moines, IA, for Plaintiffs.Jeffrey C. Peterzalek, Jeffrey S. Thompson, Iowa Attorney General, Des Moines, IA, Mark E. Schantz, College of Law, Iowa City, IA, for Defendants.Randall C. Wilson, ACLU of Iowa Foundation, Inc., Des Moines, IA, for Amicus.

MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER

ROBERT W. PRATT, Chief Judge.

Currently before the Court are two motions. The first motion is “Plaintiffs' Motion for Temporary Restraining Order and Preliminary Injunction,” filed on December 8, 2010. Clerk's No. 2. Defendants filed a response in opposition to this motion on December 23, 2010. Clerk's No. 31. Plaintiffs filed a reply on January 3, 2011.² Clerk's No. 32. The American Civil Liberties Union of Iowa, Foundation, Inc. (hereinafter the “ACLU of Iowa”) has also filed, with leave of court, an amicus brief regarding the issues raised in this motion. See Clerk's Nos. 18–2, 34. ³ The second motion before the Court is “Defendants' Motion to Dismiss,” filed on December 17, 2010. Clerk's No. 10. Plaintiffs filed a response in opposition to this motion on January 3, 2011. Clerk's No. 32. Defendants did not file a reply. The Court held a hearing on both motions on January 6, 2010. Clerk's No. 35. At the hearing, the Court ordered Plaintiffs to file a letter regarding the application of certain legal authorities to this case. See id. The Court received Plaintiffs' letter on January 11, 2011. See Clerk's No. 36. The matters are fully submitted.

I. FACTUAL & HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

A. The Development of the “Missouri Plan”

“Since the American Revolutionary War, there have been heated debates about the best methods for state judicial selection.” Rachel Paine Caufield, Ph.D., How the Pickers Pick: Finding a Set of Best Practices for Judicial Nominating Commissions, 34 Fordham Urb. L.J. 163, 164 (2007) (hereinafter “Caufield”). From 1776 to 1830, states selected their judges by appointment. See id. at 166. In the mid-nineteenth century, however, “a wave of popularism spread across the land” and “[i]t came to be thought that all public officials should be elected, for short terms.” Harvey Uhlenhopp, Judicial Reorganization in Iowa, 44 Iowa L. Rev. 6, 52 (1958–1959) (hereinafter “Uhlenhopp”); see also Sandra Day O'Connor, The Essentials and Expendables of the Missouri Plan, 74 Mo. L.Rev. 479, 483 (2009) (hereinafter “O'Connor”) (noting that, during this period, “[m]any people felt that appointive systems had allowed governors and legislators to award judgeships based on party loyalty rather than on legal ability, judicial temperament, or fair mindedness”). As a result, a number of states decided to change their judicial selection systems and began electing their judges by popular vote. See Uhlenhopp at 52–53; Caufield at 167.

However, “by the close of the 19th century disenchantment [with elected judiciaries] had begun to set in.” Glenn R. Winters, The Merit Plan for Judicial Selection and Tenure—Its Historical Development, 7 Duq. L. Rev. 61, 64 (1968–1969) (hereinafter “Winters”). During the early decades of the twentieth century, the issues of judicial selection and retention gained increasing attention from commentators. See generally id. at 64–65, 70. For example, in a famous 1906 speech, Professor Roscoe Pound criticized elective judiciaries for “[p]utting courts into politics, and compelling judges to become politicians,” arguing that “in many jurisdictions [judicial elections] ha[d] almost destroyed the traditional respect for the bench.” See id. (quoting Roscoe Pound, The Causes of Popular Dissatisfaction with the Administration of Justice, 46 J. Am. Jud. Soc'y 55, 66 (1962) (hereinafter “Pound”)). In 1913, William Howard Taft “severely criticized both partisan and non-partisan election and urged a return to the appointive system.” Id. at 65 (citing William H. Taft, The Selection and Tenure of Judges, 36 Annual Rep. A.B.A. 418 (1913)).

In 1914, a Northwestern University law professor, Albert M. Kales, proposed a system in which judges would be: (1) nominated by “a group of knowledgeable people”; (2) appointed by a popularly-elected official; and (3) retained in office subject to periodic non-competitive elections. See id. at 67; id. at 65 (citing Albert M. Kales, Unpopular Government in the United States (1914) (hereinafter “Kales”)). In 1940, Missouri was the first state to adopt a judicial selection and retention system that included these three basic elements. See id. at 71. Therefore, some commentators have referred to other judicial selection systems that share these three basic elements as following the “Missouri Plan.” ⁴ See id.

Generally, in judicial selection systems following the Missouri Plan, “some portion of the membership [of the nominating commission] is made up of attorneys, while others are selected from the general public. In most systems, the governor, legislature, state bar association, and, sometimes, the chief justice appoint some proportion of the nominating commission's membership.” Mark A. Behrens & Cary Silverman, The Case for Adopting Appointive Judicial Selection Systems for State Court Judges, 11 Cornell J.L. & Pub. Pol'y 273, 301 (2002) (hereinafter “Behrens”). However, beyond these basic elements, there is “great variance between the [judicial] selection systems of the states” that follow the Missouri Plan. See id.; see also Caufield at 171 (“It is important to note that there is no one merit selection system.”).

B. Iowa's Implementation of the Missouri Plan

Iowa became a state in 1846, during the period in which a number of states discarded their old appointive systems and decided to select judges by popular election. See generally Uhlenhopp at 52–53. Therefore, it is not surprising that the framers of the Iowa Constitution “hotly debated” the issue of whether or not Iowa judges should be directly elected. See id. at 53 n. 154. When the original Iowa Constitution was adopted in 1846, it reflected a sort of compromise between those who favored direct, popular elections and those who did not. The 1846 Constitution provided that district court judges would be selected by popular election but that supreme court justices would be elected by the state general assembly. See Iowa Const., art. V, §§ 3, 4 (1846). This distinction did not last long, however. In 1857, Iowa adopted a new constitution that provided for the popular election of all state judges. Id., art. V, §§ 3, 5 (1857).

Iowa continued to elect its judges for over one hundred years. In the 1950s, however, momentum began building for change. In 1957, one commentator noted that “Iowa ... persists in the popular election of all members of the judiciary system, from the supreme court to the justice of the peace,” and suggested that an appointive system would “elevate the quality of the members of the bench....” See Uhlenhopp at 54–55 n. 160 (quoting Russell Marion Ross, The Government and Administration of Iowa 356 (1957)). In 1958, an Iowa “district court judge proposed to change the procedure for judicial selection” in an Iowa Law Review article. See Opinion No. 94–7–2(L), 1994 WL 470468, at *1 (Iowa A.G. July 1, 1994) (citing Uhlenhopp at 54, 65–66).

In that article, Judge Harvey Uhlenhopp ⁵ called for, among other things, a “return to a nonpolitical judiciary.” Uhlenhopp at 11. Judge Uhlenhopp argued that, in order to promote justice, judges must be “beholden to no one.” Id. at 51. He also argued, in a judicial selection system, “[t]he objective is to secure the best qualified individual for judge who is available. Hence, the choice must be made intelligently.” Id. at 54. But, according to Judge Uhlenhopp:

The trouble with the elective method is that this essential [of intelligent choice] is almost entirely lacking. Popular election, rather than careful selection, is a poor way to fill posts involving professional qualifications. The people have little opportunity to study the training, experience, and character of the various lawyers who want to be judge.... The people ... should only be called upon to select policy makers, such as the chief executive of the legislators. The people can and will learn how those candidates stand on the issues. But voters are not prepared for the choices they must make when they are asked to pick department heads, railroad commissioners, judges, and whatnot.... The people should decide between candidates who establish broad programs, but judges do not function in that area. We might as well pick our school teachers and highway engineers at the polls.Id. at 54–56 (footnotes omitted).

Judge Uhlenhopp argued that Iowa's elective system also had “four side effects,” namely: (1) discouraging talented lawyers from seeking judicial office; (2) preventing talented lawyers from becoming judges if they belonged to the minority political party; (3) discouraging judges from firmly managing their dockets for fear of offending powerful lawyers; and (4) and inviting “the loss of public confidence which results from politics in the courts.” Id. at...