Iowa's State Supreme Court Justices Are All Men -- Now A Woman Will Finally Join The Bench
Source: Bustle
By SETH MILLSTEIN
3 hours ago
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Iowa's State Supreme Court Justices Are All Men — Now A Woman Will Finally Join The Bench
BySETH MILLSTEIN
3 hours ago
For the last seven years, Iowa's state supreme court justices have all been men, making it the only state in the country with no women on its top court. That's about to change, though: Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds will soon appoint a judge to fill a fill an upcoming vacancy on the court, and the three finalists she's considering are all women.
Iowa Supreme Court Justice Bruce Zager will be retiring in September, and the State Judicial Nominating Commission spent two days interviewing potential candidates to fill the vacancy that will be created once he does, the Gazette reports. On Tuesday, the commission advanced three finalists, all of whom are women. Reynolds is required to pick from that list, so no matter who she taps for the job, a woman will sit on the Iowa Supreme Court in September for the first time since 2010.
The three finalists are Susan Christensen, a judge in the 4th Judicial District in Harlan; Terri Comb, a West Des Moines lawyer; and Kellyann Lekar, a judge in the 1st Judicial District in Waterloo. Christensen is the daughter of the late Jerry Larson, who served as the chief justice on the Iowa Supreme Court for a record-setting 30 years.
The last woman on Iowa's Supreme Court was Chief Justice Marsha Ternus. In 2010, however, she and two other judges on the bench were targeted by state conservatives for ruling in favor of same-sex marriage, and all three ended up losing reelection. Then-Gov. Terry Branstad appointed Zager to fill Ternus' seat in 2011.
Read more: https://www.bustle.com/p/iowas-state-supreme-court-justices-are-all-men-now-a-woman-will-finally-join-the-bench-9763822
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