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A bill that was proposed at the beginning of the Iowa Legislative session to change the makeup of the judicial nomination commission has gone through several changes.

District 47 Representative Phil Thompson of Jefferson describes the final version of the bill, which passed both the House and Senate last week. “The governor will appoint nine, the attornies (with the Iowa Bar Association) will have their elections to put on eight and then that commission will bring three nominees forward to select from.”

The other addition was removing the Chief Justice of the Iowa Supreme Court as the chair of that commission. It was a vast change from the original proposal of allowing the majority and minority leaders of the House and Senate to each nominate two individuals to be on the commission, along with the governor’s eight appointees, which would have prevented the Iowa Bar Association from having any appointments.

Republican lawmakers said the bill was about keeping the merit-based system in place, but giving Iowans more voice in the nomination process with having the majority and minority leaders appoint individuals instead of the Iowa Bar Association. We’ve previously reported that opponents, such as Greene County Attorney Thomas Laehn, thought the current system was fair because the Iowa Bar Association has the expertise needed in selecting individuals to nominate for Supreme Court Justices.

District 24 Senator Jerry Behn of Boone describes his reaction to the changes in the bill from what was originally proposed, “There was a lot of discussion on that all throughout the session as to what is the best way of doing it. I still think our original bill was the best. But I think the bill we ended up with is still a step in the right direction. And I still think it’s going to be better than the current situation. I still think it gives average Iowans a bigger voice in the process and that’s what we wanted in the first place.”

Thompson agrees with Behn that the bill leads the process in a better direction. With the legislative session now over, the bill is on Governor Kim Reynolds’ desk waiting for her signature to become law.