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Dana Oxley
2020 - Present
2030
5
Dana Oxley (formerly Dana Wade) is a judge of the Iowa Supreme Court. She assumed office on February 24, 2020. Her current term ends on December 31, 2030.
Oxley (formerly Dana Wade) ran for re-election for judge of the Iowa Supreme Court. She won in the retention election on November 8, 2022.
She was appointed by Gov. Kim Reynolds (R) on January 28, 2020, to succeed Chief Justice Mark Cady following his death.[1] To learn more about this appointment, click here.
In 2020, Ballotpedia published Ballotpedia Courts: State Partisanship, a study examining the partisan affiliation of all state supreme court justices in the country. As part of this study, we assigned each justice a Confidence Score describing our confidence in the degree of partisanship exhibited by the justices' past partisan behavior, before they joined the court.[2] Oxley received a confidence score of Mild Republican.[3] Click here to read more about this study.
Biography
Oxley obtained a B.A. in accounting from the University of Northern Iowa in 1990. She received a J.D. from the University of Iowa College of Law, where she was Order of the Coif, in 1998. During her legal studies, Oxley was a member of the Journal of Corporation Law, serving as an articles editor from 1997 to 1998.[4]
Before her appointment to the state supreme court, Oxley was a law clerk to Judge David R. Hansen of the United States Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit and an attorney at Shuttleworth & Ingersoll, P.L.C. As of July 2021, she was an adjunct professor at the University of Iowa College of Law.[5]
Elections
2022
See also: Iowa Supreme Court elections, 2022
Iowa Supreme Court, Dana Oxley's seat
Dana Oxley was retained to the Iowa Supreme Court on November 8, 2022 with 67.0% of the vote.
Retention Vote |
% |
Votes |
|||
| ✔ | Yes |
67.0
|
591,837 | ||
No |
33.0
|
291,799 | |||
Total Votes |
883,636 | ||||
|
|
Campaign themes
2022
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Dana Oxley did not complete Ballotpedia's 2022 Candidate Connection survey.
Appointments
2020
Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds (R) appointed Dana Oxley to the Iowa Supreme Court on January 28, 2020. Oxley succeeded Chief Justice Mark Cady, who died of a heart attack on November 15, 2019.[1][6] Oxley was Gov. Reynolds' third nominee to the seven-member supreme court.
Under Iowa law, the governor appoints supreme court justices with help from the Iowa Judicial Nominating Commission, a 17-member body responsible for recommending potential nominees to the governor. The commission is chaired by the senior associate justice—other than the chief justice—of the state supreme court.[7]
Analysis
Ballotpedia Courts: State Partisanship (2020)
Dana
Oxley
Iowa
- Partisan Confidence Score:
Mild Republican - Judicial Selection Method:
Assisted appointment through hybrid judicial nominating commission - Key Factors:
- Appointed by a Republican governor
- State was a Republican trifecta at time of appointment
Partisan Profile
Details:
Oxley was appointed by Gov. Kim Reynolds (R) in 2020. At the time of her appointment, Iowa was a Republican trifecta.
State supreme court judicial selection in Iowa
- See also: Judicial selection in Iowa
The seven justices on the Iowa Supreme Court are selected through the assisted appointment method. When a vacancy occurs on the supreme court, the State Judicial Nominating Commission submits a list of three potential nominees to the governor, who appoints one to serve as a judge. The commission consists of 17 members—nine appointed by the governor and confirmed by the Iowa State Senate and eight (two from each congressional district) elected by lawyers.[8]
Iowa law states that no more than a simple majority of the state nominating commission may be of the same gender.[9]
Newly appointed judges serve for one year after their appointment. They must then compete in a yes-no retention election (occurring during the regularly scheduled general election) if they wish to remain on the court. They then serve eight-year terms.[10]
Qualifications
To serve on this court, a judge must be:[10]
- licensed to practice law in the state;
- a member of the Iowa bar;
- a resident of the state, district, or county to which they are appointed; and
- under the age of 72.
Note: Retirement at 72 is mandatory, though older judges may apply to become a senior judge. Senior judges must work a minimum of 13 weeks a year and are to receive a monthly retirement annuity and an annual stipend. They must retire at age 78 (or 80, if reappointed by the supreme court for additional one-year terms).[11]
Chief justice
The chief justice of the supreme court is elected by peer vote and serves a two-year term.[10]
Vacancies
If a midterm vacancy occurs on the court, the seat is filled as it normally would be if the vacancy occurred at the end of a judge's term. A judicial nominating commission recommends qualified candidates to the governor and the governor selects a successor from that list. The new appointee serves for at least one year and then stands for retention.[8]
The map below highlights how vacancies are filled in state supreme courts across the country.
See also
2022 Elections
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Office of the governor of Iowa, "Gov. Reynolds appoints Dana Oxley to the Supreme Court," January 28, 2020
- ↑ We calculated confidence scores by collecting several data points such as party registration, donations, and previous political campaigns.
- ↑ The five possible confidence scores were: Strong Democrat, Mild Democrat, Indeterminate, Mild Republican, and Strong Republican.
- ↑ IowaCourts.gov, "State Judicial Nomination Commission and Office of the Governor Joint Judicial Application," accessed January 29, 2020
- ↑ Iowa Judicial Branch, "Dana Oxley," accessed July 19, 2021
- ↑ Des Moines Register, "'He leaves behind a legacy of service and dedication that we should never forget': Iowa's leaders remember Chief Justice Mark Cady," updated November 17, 2019
- ↑ Iowa Judicial Branch, "Judicial Nominating Commission begins process for selecting nominees for Supreme Court vacancy," December 13, 2018
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 Iowa Judicial Nominating Commissions, "State Judicial Nominating Commission," accessed September 13, 2021
- ↑ Iowa Legislature, "CHAPTER 46, 46.1 and 46.2," accessed September 13, 2021
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 National Center for State Courts, "Methods of Judicial Selection: Iowa," September 13, 2021
- ↑ Iowa Legislature, "Judicial Retirement System," updated September 2015
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Federal courts:
Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals • U.S. District Court: Northern District of Iowa, Southern District of Iowa • U.S. Bankruptcy Court: Northern District of Iowa, Southern District of Iowa
State courts:
Iowa Supreme Court • Iowa Court of Appeals • Iowa district courts
State resources:
Courts in Iowa • Iowa judicial elections • Judicial selection in Iowa
