Editorial
November 5, 2010
Marsha Ternus, David Baker and Michael Streit are three of the incumbents tossed out of office Tuesday by angry voters. They aren't corrupt or incompetent. They aren't even politicians. They're state Supreme Court justices, and the circumstances of their eviction should be deeply troubling to anyone who believes in the rule of law.
The judges' sin was that they did their jobs. They read the state constitution and interpreted its meaning without regard to politics, public opinion or the passions of the moment. That reading led them to invalidate an Iowa law limiting marriage to a man and woman.
The court's vote was 7-0, and it doesn't appear to have been politically inspired. Five of the justices were named by Democratic governors and two by Republicans. In all probability, at least some of them personally oppose same-sex marriage. Nor do Iowans lack a process for amending their founding legal document. But on Tuesday, for the first time since Iowa's judicial selection system began almost 50 years ago, they simply tossed the judges out.
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