Issue- Protecting civil liberties and civil rights is of great concern to every Iowa attorney. Of particular importance are the rights of those who have persistently and traditionally been denied equal treatment under the law including, but not limited to, race, creed, color, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, religion, ancestry, or disability (collectively the “protected classes”).
Position- Protecting the civil and human rights of every Iowan is paramount to the practice of law in Iowa. Any degradation of any of those rights only serves to harm the practice of law within Iowa and the marketplaces in which Iowa’s attorneys serve. Protecting these rights is paramount to reversing Iowa’s access to justice issues and retaining a pipeline to practice.
As stated on the Iowa Department of Cultural Affairs Iowa: Leader in Civil Rights and Equality 1
(emphases added)
Iowa has a proud record of laws and court decisions that have established precedents that expanded civil rights and equality before they were adopted on the national level. The first case heard by the Iowa Supreme Court, the Case of Ralph in 1839, declared that a slave who came to the state legally could not be forced to return to his or her master because Iowa did not allow slavery. That came a decade before the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in the Dred Scott decision that slaves were property, could be taken anywhere and had no rights. It took the Civil War to end the question of slavery. After Iowa desegregated schools in 1868, it took the U.S. Supreme Court almost 90 years to reach the same conclusion in Brown v. Board of Education.
Iowa and Expanding Civil Rights: Iowa was also one of the first states to grant African American men the right to vote. In 1868, Iowa voters (all white men at the time) approved a constitutional amendment that removed the word "white" as a qualification for voting. While Iowa-born and educated Carrie Chapman Catt became the leader of the national organization promoting women’s suffrage, Iowa was not in the forefront of states granting that right. Iowa voters, still all male, defeated an amendment is 1916 to
extend voting rights to women, but the Iowa legislature approved a national Constitutional amendment for women's suffrage opening the 1920 elections to both
sexes. Discrimination based on sex or gender orientation rose to prominence in the latter half of the 20th century. Iowa voters twice defeated an Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) designed to prevent discrimination against women. In the referenda of 1980 and 1992, opponents helped to defeat the ERA proposal by arguing that it would advance gay rights when laws could not discriminate based on sex. In 2009, however, Iowa became the third state to grant same-sex couples the right to marriage by a ruling of the Iowa Supreme Court.
Separate and Unequal: However, it is important to look beyond the laws themselves to the way they were implemented — or not — in daily life. In Iowa's territory and early statehood days, there were laws that placed severe restrictions on African Americans wanting to move into the state or live here. They had to post bonds to ensure that they would not become public charges and were denied basic rights guaranteed to whites, like the right to serve on juries. While Iowa law prohibited public accommodations like trains, buses, restaurants, and theaters from discriminating on the basis of race, in practice African Americans often faced barriers. Many schools prohibited African Americans from playing on sports teams. Some communities even had "sunset laws" that required African Americans to leave town by evening. African-American students at the state universities were denied housing in school dorms until African-American Veterans
returning from World War II demanded and overturned that restriction. Edna Griffin led a 1948 protest against Katz Drug Store in Des Moines when it refused to serve her ice cream at its lunch counter. When she sued based on Iowa law, she won but was awarded $1. As late as the 1960s, some theaters required African Americans to sit in the balcony and some restaurants refused to serve African-American customers.
Refugee Resettlement: In other ways, however, Iowa has been a leader as an open and inclusive society. In the 1970s, Governor Robert Ray inaugurated a resettlement program for Vietnamese and Laotian refugees displaced by the civil wars in those countries. When Ray traveled to Southeast Asia and viewed the horrible conditions in refugee camps, he made a commitment to organize resources to help them establish new lives in Iowa. He mobilized churches and welfare groups to help refugees find housing, learn English and get jobs. Today, many of the refugees and their children have distinguished themselves in their chosen professions.
One must consider both the laws that are on the books and the ways that they are implemented when evaluating Iowa’s record. Attitudes toward race, gender and other factors have changed over the years, and Iowa has reflected those changes. Still, the long-term trend is toward eliminating barriers toward the full participation of all. Both the national creed in the Declaration of Independence that all "are created equal" and Iowa's motto that "our liberties we prize and our rights we will maintain" have been powerful ideals by which we work toward creating a just society.
Upon being sworn in, every new Iowa attorney must take an oath. That oath requires each of these attorneys to commit, in part, to support the constitutions of the United States and the State of Iowa and to faithfully and ethically discharge the duties required of Iowa lawyers. Additionally, the oath requires attorneys to support the oppressed. Taken together, these require protecting those who are not afforded basic protections and taking on positions which may be contrary to any current body politick. These are the principles which guide the practice of law for every attorney in Iowa.
Protecting civil liberties and civil rights is important to Iowa. Passing laws which take rights away from historically marginalized communities impacts the ability of this state to retain young attorneys and it pushes them away from representing those in communities who are losing attorneys, resulting in legal deserts. Iowa already struggles to attract or even maintain practicing attorneys in those areas where they are most needed. The continued narrowing of Iowa citizens’ rights, including historically marginalized communities, will only exacerbate these issues. As a result, there will be less access to legal services and a continued flight of those supporting the future of the profession in Iowa.
It is the ISBA’s position that the civil and human rights of every Iowan continue to be protected by Iowa law, and Iowa continue to be a judicial pillar of ensuring equal rights for all Iowans. The ISBA shall continue to advocate for maintaining the civil liberties and civil rights under Iowa law, restoring legal protections for protected classes that have been eroded in recent years, and legislatively expanding civil liberty and civil right protections by educating and lobbying our legislators to ensure the continued safety of Iowa’s protected classes.