Last week, the Iowa House Judiciary Committee withdrew its subpoena for documents about alleged wrongdoing in a district court judge selection process.

Sources say two nominations to replace an open judge seat in the Judicial District 2B, which includes Greene County, were rejected by Governor Kim Reynolds in November. The governor claimed that several commissioners who were to recommend nominations for the governor to choose from said that the commission’s chair, Judge Kurt Stoebe, allegedly showed favoritism and the governor said there were steps made to deliberately exclude one applicant from consideration.

Since then, District 47 Representative Phil Thompson of Boone says the Iowa Judicial Branch has launched its own investigation and there was a resolution passed by the Iowa House to conduct its own investigation, which he did not support.

“Really it’s just a philosophical issue where I believe in separation of powers, and I didn’t really feel like this reached that threshold. I was kind of afraid of the precedent that we were setting for when we step in. Certainly, there’s a place for the Legislature to step in and conduct an investigation. I didn’t think that this was really the appropriate threshold for that.”      

Thompson hopes that by the end of the Judicial Branch investigation they get answers and will go from there. The open district court judge seat was due to the appointment of Judge Gina Badding to the Iowa Court of Appeals. There are 22 counties, mostly in north central Iowa that make up the Judicial District 2B.