Iowa Supreme Court Rejects Antigay Activists' Claims in Lesbian Civil Union Dissolution Case: Lambda Legal Declares Victory

(Des Moines, Iowa, June 17, 2005) — In a decision issued today, the Iowa Supreme Court rejected claims made by antigay activists and individual legislators that they had a right to interfere in the civil union dissolution between two Sioux City women.

Finding that the challengers had no “legally recognized or personal stake in the underlying case” the Court held that “simply having an opinion” is not enough to interfere in the personal matters of other people and declined to consider the challengers’ legal claims.

“These antigay legislators tried to use two people's private legal matter as an excuse for laying out their philosophy of marriage, but you can't use another person's private case to pursue your own political agenda,” said Camilla Taylor, Staff Attorney in Lambda Legal’s Midwest Regional Office in Chicago.

In August of 2003 the two women filed papers to dissolve their civil union. The judge in their case noted that he was simply resolving a legal matter between a couple as the state’s courts routinely do. Iowa courts commonly settle the legal affairs of married and unmarried persons.

In February of 2004, a group of state legislators, a congressman and a northwest Iowa church filed a petition to be heard by the Iowa State Supreme Court. They filed a lawsuit asserting the judge, Jeffery Neary in the Iowa District Court for Woodbury County, lacked the authority to terminate the civil union, and they asked the state high court to hear their case.

Lambda Legal filed a friend-of-the-court brief last June, also signed by the Iowa Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU and the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Community Center of Central Iowa, that urged the court to throw the case out. The brief argued that none of the parties involved in the challenge had legal standing to interfere in the case because they aren’t harmed in any way by Judge Neary’s decision. The brief also pointed out that Iowa law permits a court to terminate a civil union, so that the members of the couple can move on with their lives with certainty about their legal rights, plan financially and start new families.

Camilla Taylor argued the case before the high court in January. Camilla Taylor, Staff Attorney, in Lambda Legal’s Midwest Regional Office is handling the case. She is joined by Lambda Legal cooperating attorney Sharon Malheiro, with the law firm Davis, Brown, Koehn, Shors Roberts, P.C., in Des Moines.

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Lisa Hardaway: 402-369-2104

Lambda Legal is a national organization committed to achieving full recognition of the civil rights of lesbians, gay men, bisexuals, transgender people and those with HIV through impact litigation, education and public policy work.