Christopher J. Godfrey, an out gay man who served as Iowa’s Workers Compensation Commissioner beginning in 2006, won a jury verdict in 2019 of $1.5 million dollars on claims of sexual orientation discrimination and retaliation by Governor Terry Branstad, Branstad’s legal counsel, and the state government. The jury found a violation of the state’s statutory ban on sexual orientation discrimination in employment, and a violation of Godfrey’s constitutional due process rights. But on June 30, … <Read More>
Iowa Supreme Court
Iowa Supreme Court Bars Wrongful Imprisonment Suit by HIV-Positive Man Whose Conviction Was Vacated by That Court
In an unfortunate turnabout, the Iowa Supreme Court unanimously ruled on April 15 that Nick Rhoades, whose guilty-plea conviction to one count of criminal transmission of HIV was reversed by that court in 2014, could not bring an action for damages against the state under its Wrongful Imprisonment Statute because the statute does not allow claims by those who pled guilty. Rhoades v. State of Iowa, 2016 WL 1533519, 2016 Iowa Sup. LEXIS 47. … <Read More>
Iowa Supreme Court Reinterprets HIV Exposure Statute to Reflect Current Science
In a triumph for science and common sense, the Iowa Supreme Court has voted in Rhoades v. State, No. 12-0180, to reinterpret that state’s HIV exposure statute to bring it into line with the current scientific evidence about HIV transmission, vacating the conviction of Nick Rhoades, who had originally been sentenced to up to 25 years in prison because he hadn’t disclosed his HIV status to a partner before engaging in sex. The June 13 … <Read More>
Iowa Supreme Court Rules for Lesbian Couple in Birth Certificate Dispute
The Iowa Supreme Court ruled on May 3 that a state law providing that the husband of a married woman who gives birth to a child is the presumptive father is unconstitutional to the extent that it doesn’t also provide such a presumption of parentage for married lesbian couples. Although the court rejected a lower court ruling interpreting the statute to lead to such a result, the court affirmed the lower court using its alternative … <Read More>