State Commission Releases Information Submitted by Applicants for Supreme Court Vacancies
Des Moines, January 19, 2011— The State Judicial Nominating Commission has released completed questionnaires and writing samples submitted by sixty persons seeking nomination for appointment to the Iowa Supreme Court. This information is available to the public and posted on the Iowa Judicial Branch website: www.iowacourts.gov
Currently, the court has three vacancies, which occurred after voters decided not to retain three justices in office last fall. The Commission is responsible for screening applicants and sending a slate of nominees to the governor who makes the appointments to the court. The Commission plans to send a slate of nine nominees to Governor Branstad. Initially, sixty-one persons applied for the court. However, last week three of the original group of applicants (Richard Anderson, Ted Breckenfelder, and James Moriarty) withdrew their applications and two other persons (Lorraine May and Gayle Vogel) applied.
The Commission will hold public interviews of all applicants next week. Interviews will begin on January 24 at 9:00 a.m. and are expected to run through noon on January 27. Interviews will be limited to 20 minutes for each applicant. The Commission will release a schedule of the interviews later this week. The Commission will hold the interviews in the Iowa Supreme Court Courtroom, 4th Floor, Iowa Judicial Branch Building, 1111 East Court Ave., Des Moines. The public is welcome to attend. In addition, the Commission is arranging for the interviews to be streamed live over the Internet. A link to the stream will be on the Iowa Judicial Branch website.
