2012 hopefuls support campaign to oust judges
from The Iowa Independent
Two potential Republican presidential candidates waded into the debate over whether three Iowa Supreme Court Justices should be removed from the bench by voters this fall, with former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich and Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty saying it is appropriate for voters to boot the judges over their ruling legalizing same-sex marriage.
Former Republican gubernatorial candidate Bob Vander Plaats last week launched a campaign to convince voters to vote against retaining Chief Justice Marsha Ternus and Justices David Baker and Michael Streit because of the court’s unanimous 2009 ruling that Iowa’s Defense of Marriage Act violated the state’s constitution. The decision effectively legalized same-sex marriage. ...
“Iowans are unique in that they have the ability this fall to send a very clear and simple message that the court’s behavior is unacceptable by just voting ‘no’ on the three judges who are up for reappointment,” Gingrich said in an interview with WHO-AM. “If a majority of Iowans vote ‘no,’ that will send a signal to the whole country that there is a citizens revolt under way.”
Every time you turn around the “legal class has decided that it now has the right to dictate to the rest of us,” Gingrich said, adding: “We’re going to have to fundamentally revisit how we deal with judges because the judicial branch has grown much too powerful and much too dictatorial and now regularly over reaches in telling the rest of us how to live.”
During a visit to Iowa last month, Gingrich said the retention vote could be a “clarion call” to the left-wing legal secular elite.
