(C) Iowa Capital Dispatch.
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Three finalists named for Iowa Supreme Court vacancy

['Clark Kauffman', 'More From Author', '- June']

Date: 2022-06-27 00:00:00


Three Iowans are now vying for an Iowa Supreme Court seat that will be vacated next month with the retirement of Brent Appel, the court’s only Democrat-appointed justice.

The State Judicial Nominating Commission met Monday to interview five applicants for the expected vacancy. Following the interviews, the commission deliberated and selected a slate of three nominees from the group and delivered their names to Gov. Kim Reynolds.

The nominees selected by the panel are Judge Alan Heavens of Garnavillo, who is now a district court judge; Judge David May of Polk City, who is now a member of the Iowa Court of Appeals; and William J. Miller of Des Moines, who is now an attorney with the law firm of Dorsey & Whitney.

The governor has 30 days in which to appoint one of the three to the Iowa Supreme Court.

The two individuals who didn’t make the final cut to have their names submitted to the governor for consideration are Patrick Tott of Sioux City, who is the chief district court judge of the Third Judicial District; and Timothy Gartin, an Ames attorney with the firm Hastings, Gartin & Boettger.

The 17-member commission is composed of eight commissioners elected by lawyers licensed to practice law in Iowa and nine commissioners appointed by the governor and confirmed by the Iowa Senate.

Appel was appointed to the Iowa Supreme Court by Gov. Tom Vilsack in 2006, and plans to retire on July 13 at age 72, the mandatory retirement age. His departure will give Reynolds her fifth appointment to the court.

With Appel dissenting, the Iowa Supreme Court recently reversed a 2018 decision guaranteeing a right to abortion under the Iowa Constitution. In his dissent, Appel warned that “the right to reproductive autonomy should not be eviscerated by narrow textualism.”

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