Anti-abortion leader suggests ousting 3 Iowa Supreme Court justices, echoing removals in 2010

A conservative anti-abortion leader says three Iowa Supreme Court justices should resign, be impeached or be ousted in the wake of a deadlocked decision that prevented a restrictive abortion law from taking effect.

Gov. Kim Reynolds had asked the high court to reinstate a blocked 2018 law that would have banned most abortions after about six weeks of pregnancy. The court's 3-3 split on Friday, with one justice recused, means a lower court's ruling keeping the law blocked is the final say on the matter.

More: Iowa Supreme Court deadlocks 3-3 on 'fetal heartbeat' abortion ban. It won't go into effect.

The call to remove the justices by Bob Vander Plaats, president and CEO of The Family Leader, a conservative Christian group, echoes a successful 2010 campaign Vander Plaats helped lead to oust three other Iowa Supreme Court justices in the wake of a 2009 ruling legalizing same-sex marriage in the state.

"In 2010, Iowans ousted three Iowa Supreme Court justices for disregarding the separation of power," Vander Plaats wrote on Twitter Saturday afternoon. "These three dissenters have shown blatant disrespect for the constitution, the people's representatives and we the people. They should resign, be impeached or be ousted."

Reynolds and other Republicans expressed disappointment in the decision Friday, but have not gone as far as Vander Plaats in calling for the justices' removal.

In a phone interview with the Des Moines Register Saturday evening, Vander Plaats said Iowa Supreme Court Chief Justice Susan Christensen and Justices Edward Mansfield and Thomas Waterman "went completely outside their jurisdiction" with their opinion, written by Waterman, that favored affirming the district court's order blocking the law.

Iowa judges and justices are appointed by the governor, but face periodic retention elections. The ouster of the three justices in 2010 came through the retention election process. Christensen, Mansfield and Waterman aren't up for retention until 2028.

All three justices were appointed by Republicans. Christensen was appointed by Reynolds, and Mansfield and Waterman were appointed by former Gov. Terry Branstad to replace two of the justices ousted in the 2010 retention election.

The 2018 law is known to supporters as the "fetal heartbeat" law. It would have banned nearly all abortions after the first cardiac impulses were detected in an embryo, usually at about six weeks and often before a woman knows she's pregnant. It was signed at a time when Roe v. Wade protected abortion rights nationwide. Waterman wrote in his opinion that lawmakers knew it stood no chance of being enforced.

"When the statute was enacted in 2018, it had no chance of taking effect," Waterman wrote. "To put it politely, the legislature was enacting a hypothetical law. Today, such a statute might take effect given the change in the constitutional law landscape. But uncertainty exists about whether a fetal heartbeat bill would be passed today."

More: READ: Supreme Court justices trade barbs in contentious non-decision in abortion case

Vander Plaats said the justices shouldn't be guessing at what the Legislature's intent was, or whether lawmakers would pass the law again today.

"There’s nothing hypothetical about this," he said. "The reason it’s being appealed is because it’s not hypothetical. They want this to stick."

Two of the justices who favored lifting the injunction preventing the law from taking effect also criticized Waterman for his "hypothetical law" reasoning.

Justice Christopher McDonald wrote that legislators passed the law and the governor signed it in accord with the state constitution, and "contrary to my colleagues’ assertion, it is not a 'hypothetical law.' It is an actual law."

Vander Plaats said "there needs to be accountability" for what he described as judicial activism.

The Iowa Constitution sets forth a process for the Legislature to impeach justices.

"If that means it’s an impeachment, if they want to go down that route, I think I would encourage them to do that," he said. "When these come up for retention, if we get asked, ‘What do you do?’ we’ll definitely point out this case about how they handled this. That doesn’t mean we’re running a campaign against them, anything like that. At this point what I’m doing is I’m calling out activism when I see it."

Vander Plaats said he's not actively calling lawmakers to encourage them to support an impeachment inquiry into any of the justices, but he also said, "They read my tweets."

On Monday, Connie Ryan, chairperson of Justice Not Politics, issued a news release criticizing Vander Plaats' comments, saying they appear "to be a ploy to gain more political steam as Iowa heads into the 2024 election season."

Justice Not Politics describes itself as a nonpartisan organization committed to protecting the independence of Iowa’s courts and the state's merit selection and retention system for judges.

“Iowa’s Supreme Court justices meet all legitimate standards to serve the people of Iowa," Ryan said in the release. "Just because you disagree with a ruling does not mean the justices are not qualified. Iowans see through Vander Plaats’ political charade and will continue to support Iowa’s fair and impartial judicial system.”

Stephen Gruber-Miller covers the Iowa Statehouse and politics for the Register. He can be reached by email at sgrubermil@registermedia.com or by phone at 515-284-8169. Follow him on Twitter at @sgrubermiller.

This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Anti-abortion leader calls for ousting 3 Iowa Supreme Court justices