Big week in Iowa Supreme Court, plus Iowa caucus and legislative news

April 17 "Capitol Week" is online

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On to the latest “Capitol Week.” Dennis and I were on the air for longer than usual on April 17, as the show took up the full 7:00 hour, with occasional breaks for a fundraising pitch. I wasn’t able to download the whole audio clip, but you can find it here.

Topics we covered:

• The Iowa Supreme Court heard oral arguments last Tuesday about Governor Kim Reynolds’ effort to reinstate a 2018 abortion ban, which would prohibit almost all abortions after around 6 weeks. There are a lot of complicated procedural issues here, so we spent a fair amount of time explaining the arguments presented by the state’s attorneys and Planned Parenthood;

• The Iowa Supreme Court is expected to rule sometime before the end of June, but the justices may decide the case on procedural grounds, without clarifying whether they would uphold some future law with restrictions like those in the 2018 statute;

• Adding to the range of possibilities, if the Iowa Supreme Court remands this case to lower court (as opposed to rejecting the state’s effort outright), it’s not clear whether the injunction on the 2018 law would remain in place, or whether the court would allow the abortion ban to be enforced while the case is litigated;

• Governor Reynolds accessed the Iowa Supreme Court justices’ private office area before the oral arguments on the abortion case. At Bleeding Heartland, I wrote about this incident and why it was problematic;

• We discussed the conflicting orders issued by federal judges earlier this month regarding the availability of mifepristone. That drug is used for most medication abortions, as well as for miscarriage care (Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird joined many GOP colleagues to support the effort to revoke the FDA approval);

• Depending on how that mess plays out in federal court, Planned Parenthood North Central States (the affiliate that includes Iowa) is ready to offer medication abortions using misoprostol only, rather than the current mifepristone-misoprostol regimen (Michaela Ramm had a good report on this for the Des Moines Register);

• Dennis and I briefly discussed last Friday’s Iowa Supreme Court ruling in an open records case involving me as a plaintiff. I covered the decision in more depth at Bleeding Heartland; my co-plaintiff Randy Evans and retired news director Dave Busiek also wrote about the important ruling;

• Moving to Iowa caucus related news, we talked about State Representative Bobby Kaufmann’s bill that would require Iowans to be physically present to take part in a precinct caucus, and to be a member of a political party at least 70 days before the caucus (the bill number is now House File 716);

• Kaufmann and other Republicans have said the goal of the bill is to prevent New Hampshire from moving its primary ahead of the Iowa caucuses; Democrats plan to move ahead with their plans for a more inclusive process, and University of Iowa law professor Derek Muller raised questions about the constitutionality of this proposal (Brianne Pfannenstiel covered that angle for the Des Moines Register);

• As many Republican candidates continue to visit Iowa, Donald Trump appears to be heavily favored to win the caucuses;

• I attended one of Asa Hutchinson’s events in Des Moines last week and talked about the former Arkansas governor’s efforts to carve out a different lane in the GOP field;

• Trump and several other presidential candidates will speak at the upcoming Iowa Faith and Freedom Coalition event on April 22, but Florida Governor Ron DeSantis won’t be there;

• The Iowa Senate held floor debate on April 17 for the first time since March 22; they started voting to confirm the governor’s appointees (we’ll talk about that in more detail next week);

• Last week an Iowa Senate Appropriations subcommittee advanced the governor’s health care bill (Senate File 324), which would fund crisis pregnancy centers and allocate more funding for rural health care centers and OB-GYN fellowships;

• Moving to the Iowa House, last week Republicans approved Senate File 494, which would result in thousands of Iowans losing federal food assistance and Medicaid;

• House Republicans also unveiled their property tax proposal last week; the Register’s Stephen Gruber-Miller explained the concept;

• House Republicans approved a bill (House File 654) allowing Iowans to keep loaded firearms in a locked car in parking lots near schools or on college campuses; a manager’s amendment removed provisions opposed by business lobby groups, which would have allowed firearms in parking lots near workplaces;

• The state of play for House File 712, which would require parental consent for Iowans under age 18 to have social media accounts;

• House members approved House File 572, which would restrict drone surveillance of livestock facilities;

• A bill legalizing raw milk sales (Senate File 315) is on its way to the governor, after the House approved it last week and the Senate passed it just before we went on the air Monday night;

• House File 651 is pending in the Senate after House members passed it last week; the bill would prohibit local governments from banning certain dog breeds;

• I’m still skeptical Republicans will be able to wrap up all their work on the budget and other bills by April 28;

• Democratic State Representative Josh Turek of Council Bluffs was recently inducted in the Wheelchair Basketball Hall of Fame; Ty Rushing profiled Turek last year for Iowa Starting Line;

• Dennis and I paid tribute to Sharon Malheiro, a legendary figure in Iowa’s LGBTQ advocacy community; she died unexpectedly last week and was laid to rest over the weekend;

• A federal judge has temporarily blocked the Biden administration’s Waters of the U.S. Rule (WOTUS); Iowa Republican politicians have sharply criticized the rule;

• Attorney General Brenna Bird joined a multi-state challenge to the Biden administration’s proposed regulations for gas stoves; her office likes to publicize most of her legal work on federal policy issues, but still hasn’t put out a press release on her anti-abortion moves;

• Iowa appears to be the only state that stopped reporting COVID-19 cases to the federal government; Jared Strong covered this for Iowa Capital Dispatch;

• What I’m watching for this week at the legislature.

Please consider supporting KHOI radio. Dennis and I enjoy doing the show, and we do our best to keep Iowans informed.

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Check out some of the other Iowa Writers Collaborative columnists! All provide content for free, with paid subscription options. Listed here in alphabetical order:

Laura Belin: Iowa Politics with Laura Belin, Windsor Heights

Doug Burns: The Iowa Mercury, Carroll

Dave Busiek: Dave Busiek on Media, Des Moines

Art Cullen: Art Cullen’s Notebook, Storm Lake

Suzanna de Baca Dispatches from the Heartland, Huxley

Debra Engle: A Whole New World, Madison County

Julie Gammack: Julie Gammack’s Iowa Potluck, Des Moines and Okoboji

Joe Geha: Fern and Joe, Ames

Jody Gifford: Benign Inspiration, West Des Moines

Beth Hoffman: In the Dirt, Lovilla

Dana James: New Black Iowa, Des Moines

Pat Kinney: View from Cedar Valley, Waterloo

Fern Kupfer: Fern and Joe, Ames

Robert Leonard: Deep Midwest: Politics and Culture, Bussey

Tar Macias: Hola Iowa, Iowa

Kurt Meyer, Showing Up, St. Ansgar

Kyle Munson, Kyle Munson’s Main Street, Des Moines

Jane Nguyen, The Asian Iowan, West Des Moines

John Naughton: My Life, in Color, Des Moines

Chuck Offenburger: Iowa Boy Chuck Offenburger, Jefferson and Des Moines

Barry Piatt: Piatt on Politic Behind the Curtain, Washington, D.C.

Macey Spensley: The Midwest Creative, Iowa

Mary Swander: Mary Swander’s Buggy Land, Kalona

Mary Swander: Mary Swander’s Emerging Voices, Kalona

Cheryl Tevis: Unfinished Business, Boone County

Ed Tibbetts: Along the Mississippi, Davenport

Teresa Zilk: Talking Good, Des Moines

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