By Staci DaSilva
sdasilva@kcautv.com
The whole Supreme Court Justice debate goes back to spring of 2009, when the Iowa Supreme Court voted to overturn a ban on same-sex marriage. And the next year, Iowans voted to oust 3 of those justices.
Now, the debate's hot again as Judge David Wiggins is up for retention.
Former presidential candidate Rick Santorum is no stranger to Iowa. He traveled to all 99 counties in his quest for the presidency and won the Iowa caucus.
And now he's back, asking Iowa voters to oust Judge David Wiggins.
Senator Rick Santorum said, "Judicial activism, whether it's on the left or on the right, is something that will not be tolerated in this country and he was certainly a lead player in that decision."
Santorum, and those who agree with him, use that term, judicial activism to speak to how they feel the justices essentially legalized same-sex marriage.
The job of any judge, after all, is to decide the constitutionality of an issue. So, was the decision they made unconstitutional?
Sen. Santorum said, "The decision was not unconstitutional. The decision said that what the people of Iowa decided that marriage was is unconstitutional. That is a wrong decision."
We spoke to attorney and member of the Iowa Bar Association Rosanne Lienhard. To her, ousting the justices is an abuse of the retention vote, one that is supposed to be a vote on how the justices are performing, not a vote on the decisions they've made.
Lienhard said, "It's a dangerous precedent that's been set. If we start judging our judges on the decisions they're making, and we disagree with that, rather than on the job they're doing, we'll politicize a system that's been very unpoliticized before."
Remember on your November ballot, a "Yes" vote will retain Judge David Wiggins and a "No" vote will oust him.
