DES MOINES, IOWA (February 8, 2019) — The State Judicial Nominating Commission, which is responsible for selecting nominees for appointment to the Iowa Supreme Court and the Iowa Court of Appeals, announced today it will begin accepting applications for the vacancy that occurred when Chief Judge David R Danilson retired January 4, 2019. The commission has sixty days from February 5, 2019, to send a slate of nominees to the Governor, who makes appointments to the court.
The commission will meet March 28 to 29, 2019, to interview all applicants, regardless if they applied for a prior appellate judgeship, and to select a slate of nominees. The deadline for applications to be most favorably considered for balloting is 14 days before March 28. Any citizen may submit in writing to the secretary of the commission, or to any commissioner, the names of persons for consideration as a candidate for nomination and express views concerning such candidate.
Application material can be obtained by contacting the secretary of the commission’s office at appellate.vacancy@iowacourts.gov.
Once the deadline for applications to be most favorably considered for balloting has passed, the commission will release the names of all applicants along with information about each applicant's background, experience, and qualifications. This list and other information about the nominating commission and Iowa's merit selection process will be available on the Iowa Judicial Nominating Commission website.
The March 28 to 29 interviews will be in the Supreme Court Courtroom in the Judicial Branch Building, 1111 East Court Avenue, Des Moines. The interview portion of the meeting is open to the public and will be streamed live and archived on the Iowa Judicial Branch YouTube channel.
The 17-member commission is composed of a chair, who is the senior justice of the supreme court other than the chief justice, eight lawyer commissioners elected by lawyers licensed to practice law in Iowa and eight commissioners appointed by the governor and confirmed by the Iowa Senate. With the exception of the commission chair, membership on the commission is limited to one six-year term. Terms are staggered. The Iowa Constitution requires that commission members be chosen without regard to political affiliation.
Iowa's process for selecting judges through the use of nominating commissions is known as merit selection. Iowa voters approved the merit selection process in 1962 by constitutional amendment. Merit selection is designed to emphasize the professional qualifications of applicants for judicial appointment and minimize partisan politics. In keeping with this design, the commission puts applicants for judicial office through a rigorous and thorough screening by reviewing extensive information about each applicant's background, education, professional skills, and experience. After the interviews, the commission sends the governor a slate of nominees. Iowa law requires nominees to be chosen "upon the basis of their qualifications and without regard to political affiliation." The governor is required to pick the new judge or justice from this slate.
Important Notice to Applicants: To be eligible for appointment to the court, a person must be a resident of the state, licensed to practice law in Iowa, and must be of such age that they will be able to serve an initial and one regular term of office before reaching the age of 72.
The names and addresses of the State Judicial Nominating Commission members and secretary are:
Chairperson Justice David S. Wiggins 1111 E. Court Avenue Des Moines, IA 50319 david.wiggins@iowacourts.gov
Secretary Todd Nuccio State Court Administrator 1111 E. Court Avenue Des Moines, IA 50319 appellate.vacancy@iowacourts.gov
Elected Lawyer Members
Henry Bevel 528 West 4th Street Waterloo, IA 50704-1200 bevel@s-c-law.com
Christine Conover 115 Third Street SE, Suite 1200 Cedar Rapids, IA 52401 cconover@simmonsperrine.com
Martin Diaz 1570 Shady Court NW Swisher, IA 52338 marty@martindiazlawfirm.com
Dorothy O’Brien 2322 East Kimberly Road, Ste. 100E Davenport, IA 52807 dao@emprights.com
Jeff Goodman 1501 42nd Street, Ste. 300 West Des Moines, IA 50266 jeff@golawpc.com
Connie Diekema 699 Walnut Street, Ste. 1900 Des Moines, IA 50309 cdiekema@finleylaw.com
Suzan Boden 613 Pierce Street Sioux City, IA 51102-1557 sboden@siouxcitylawyers.net
John Gray 1128 Historic 4th Street Sioux City, IA 51102-1557 john.gray@heidmanlaw.com
Appointed Members
Kathy Pearson 150 Thompson Drive SE, #120 Cedar Rapids, IA 52403-1740 kpearson@kaas-emp.com
Lance Horbach 136 Hillcrest Ridge Montezuma, IA 50171 lance.horbach@insurecentraliowa.com
Helen Sinclair 2208 560th Avenue Melrose, IA 52569-8502 hsinclair@moes.biz
Steve Berger 1452 128th Place Wellman, IA 52356 berger@netins.net
John Bloom 4820 Elm Street West Des Moines, IA 50265-2995 john.bloom52@gmail.com
Kathleen Law 700 Walnut Street, Suite 1600 Des Moines, IA 50309 kklaw@nyemaster.com
Steve Sukup 1405 North Shore Drive Clear Lake, IA 50428-1237 ssukup@sukup.com
Patricia “Trish” Roberts 732 San Salvador Avenue Carroll, IA 51401 trroberts@hotmail.com
For More Information: Contact: The State Judicial Nominating Commission through Steve Davis, Court Communication Director, (515) 348-4967 or steve.davis@iowacourts.gov.
