Homework Assignment #4 – What Judges Do in Iowa
According to the 2016 Judicial Performance Review put together by the Iowa State Bar Association, a good judge must possess the following attributes:
- Integrity — honest, upright and committed to the rule of law
- Professional Competence — keen intellect, extensive legal knowledge and strong writing abilities
- Judicial Temperament — neutral, decisive, respectful and composed
- Experience — strong record of professional excellence
- Service — committed to public service and the administration of justice
Bremer County has a married duo fulfilling judicial roles — Judge Peter Newell and his wife Karen Thalacker, a magistrate judge. Every Iowa county has at least one magistrate. Bremer County has two magistrates, and one is on call at all times with two taking turns each week.
When asked about what he does exactly, District Court Judge Peter Newell says his job is “like a queen in chess, and that he can do anything — murder, million dollar lawsuits.”
When wearing his District Associate Judge (DAJ), Newell works full time in Iowa to determine OWI, possession, theft, indictable misdemeanors cases with typical sentences of 1 year in county jail to 5 years in prison. He works in four counties and rotates through them every week. Some DAJs are designated to rule in juvenile cases, termination of parental rights, and adoption cases
In November, Newell is doing his first adoption day though he is not sure where that will be held. It could be in Franklin or Hardin County. “We don’t often get to do the joyful things in the court room,” Newell says.
Karen Thalacker, Magistrate Judge, is a part-time judge. She is the lowest level of judge with focus on small claims, signing search warrants, and first court appearance of bigger cases. She also gets to officiate weddings.
In Iowa judges have to reapply for their jobs every four years. There is magistrate nominating committee. The process includes interviews. Because of this, judges are not able to publicly represent their stance on certain issues. For instance, the two cannot participate in Iowa Caucuses if they wanted to. Thalacker mentions, “Part of judicial ethics in Iowa means we can’t take a optical position publicly.” As another example of not taking political position Thalacker shared of a instance where her son put a bumper sticker on his car, a car registered in his parents’s name, supporting a political party…so the sticker was removed.
Newell and Thalacker believe the rules for expanded media coverage important. Newell shared, “The public scrutiny of the court system holds everybody accountable, because in the end, we work for the public.” Thalacker added, “We would not know a fraction of [information] without reporters working around the clock to get the information out to the public.
The judges believe calling news fake undermines our process of getting information out. “The people who are writing for newspapers are the ones who are doing absolutely great work right now, ” said Thalakcer
There are instance where witholding of information is important to public safety and well-being. Like when police ask to have the search warranty sealed if they are working on sensitive information that they want to exclude public from the information. Sometimes judges might give comments to reporters off the record.
“Our whole system is built on confidence and trust,” Newell said, “I think about that sometimes in how many times I send somebody to jail. They just go because I told them they had to. They do that because they respect the system. The people involved in the system didn’t feel like they were being treated fairly. Their response to that was to go against the system.”
Thalacker is proud of the work they are doing, and especially compliments her husband, “We see people at Hy-Vee, and this is a big compliment to Pete when the say ‘Hey judge, I just wanted to let you know I’ve been sober for 6 months’ or ‘Hey judge, I got my kids back’.”
Anelia Dimitrova added, “The court system and the media are a representation of society.”
http://c.ymcdn.com/sites/www.iowabar.org/resource/resmgr/files/2016_Judicial_Performance_Re.pdf
Journalism & Law 