Three Iowan Supreme Court Justices Removed From Bench In Campaign Fuelled By Anti-Gay Hate And Out Of State Money; Iowa Family Policy Center Chuck Hurley Says Removal Was Will Of God

Three Iowa Supreme Court justices lost their seats Tuesday in an ill exercise of retaliation and retention, their losses a direct result of campaign to punish the three for their role in a ruling that allowed same sex couples to marry in 2009, the Des Moines Register reporting that Chief Justice Marsha Temus, and Justices David Baker and Michael Streit collected less than the simple majority needed to remain on the bench. Their removal is the first time since the merit selection and retention system for judges was adopted in 1962. Bob Vander Plaats, the anti-gay failed gubernatorial candidate, who crafted and led the campaign, said “It appears we’re headed for a resounding victory tonight and a historic moment in the state of Iowa. The people of Iowa stood up in record numbers and sent a message ... that it is ‘We the people,’ not ‘We the courts.’” Vander Plaats, however quite conveniently chose to either forgo or forget mentioning that the campaign was actually funded and fuelled by out-of-state money, and that the victory was hardly one of Iowans. Meanwhile, Chuck Hurley, the president of the anti-gay Iowa Family Policy Center, thanked, um, God, telling OneNewsNow.com “So we’re praising God; we’re thanking all the Iowans who stood up to judicial tyranny. It is great news in Iowa, and it is great news for the country that judges don’t have to lord it over us. ‘We the people are the ultimate authority,” although he quite quickly contradicted (or corrected) himself saying “God is our ultimate authority, and we think that we did God’s will by standing up to the three judges who would try to redefine God’s institution and say that marriage is anything other than one man and one woman.”