Susan Christensen
2018 - Present
2028
7
Susan Christensen is a judge of the Iowa Supreme Court. She assumed office in 2018. Her current term ends on December 31, 2028.
Christensen ran for re-election for judge of the Iowa Supreme Court. She won in the retention election on November 3, 2020.
Christensen was elected by her peers as chief justice in February 2020. She was elected to another term in January 2021.[1]
Christensen first became a member of the court by appointment. She was appointed in 2018 by Governor Kim Reynolds (R), replacing retired Justice Bruce Zager.[2] Christensen was sworn in on September 4, 2018, becoming the third female justice in the history of the court. 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.[3] Christensen received a confidence score of Mild Republican.[4] Click here to read more about this study.
Christensen previously served as a district judge of Iowa District 4 from 2015 to 2018.
Christensen is also the daughter of former Iowa Supreme Court Justice Jerry Larson, who was the longest-serving justice in the state supreme court's history.[5][6]
Biography
Christensen received her undergraduate degree from Judson College in 1988 and her J.D. from Creighton University in 1991.[7]
Christensen worked in private practice and as an assistant county attorney in Shelby, Harrison, and Crawford counties. In 2007, she was appointed district associate judge of Iowa District Four. In 2015, she was appointed district judge, in which position she served until Reynolds appointed her to the state supreme court.[8][7]
Christensen previously served as chair of the Children's Justice State Council and the Family First Task Force.[7]
Elections
2020
- See also: Iowa Supreme Court elections, 2020
Iowa Supreme Court
Susan Christensen was retained to the Iowa Supreme Court on November 3, 2020 with 73.0% of the vote.
Retention Vote |
% |
Votes |
|||
| ✔ | Yes |
73.0
|
859,886 | ||
No |
27.0
|
317,598 | |||
Total Votes |
1,177,484 | ||||
|
|
2016
Fifty-nine Iowa District Court judges sought retention in the general election on November 8, 2016.[9]
Susan Christensen was retained in the Iowa District 4, District Court Judge Susan Christensen Retention Election with 69.3% of the vote.
| Iowa District 4, District Court retention election, 2016 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Name | Yes votes | |
 Susan Christensen | 69.3% | |
| Source: Iowa Secretary of State, "2016 GENERAL ELECTION CANVASS SUMMARY," accessed July 15, 2021 | ||
Campaign themes
2020
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Susan Christensen did not complete Ballotpedia's 2020 Candidate Connection survey.
Appointments
Iowa Supreme Court Justice Bruce B. Zager retired on September 3, 2018. Iowa Supreme Court Chief Justice Mark Cady said of Zager's retirement, "Justice Zager has been a very important part of the supreme court and he will be missed both as a clear-thinking, deliberative judge and as a good friend."[10]
On August 1, 2018, Gov. Kim Reynolds (R) appointed Judge Susan Christensen to fill the vacancy created by Justice Zager's retirement.[5] Christensen was Gov. Reynolds' first nominee to the seven-member supreme court. Under Iowa law, she was selected by the governor with help from a nominating commission.
Analysis
Ballotpedia Courts: State Partisanship (2020)
Last updated: June 15, 2020
In 2020, Ballotpedia published Ballotpedia Courts: State Partisanship, a study examining the partisan affiliation of all state supreme court justices in the country as of June 15, 2020.
The study presented Confidence Scores that represented our confidence in each justice's degree of partisan affiliation. This was not a measure of where a justice fell on an ideological spectrum, but rather a measure of how much confidence we had that a justice was or had been affiliated with a political party. The scores were based on seven factors, including but not limited to party registration.[11]
The five resulting categories of Confidence Scores were:
- Strong Democrat
- Mild Democrat
- Indeterminate[12]
- Mild Republican
- Strong Republican
This justice's Confidence Score, as well as the factors contributing to that score, is presented below. The information below was current as of June 2020.
Susan
Christensen
Iowa
- Partisan Confidence Score:
Mild Republican - Judicial Selection Method:
Assisted appointment through hybrid judicial nominating commission - Key Factors:
- Was a registered Republican before 2020
- Donated less than $2,000 to Republican candidates
- Appointed by a Republican governor
Partisan Profile
Details:
Christensen donated $100 to Republican candidates and organizations. She was a registered Republican prior to 2020. Christensen was appointed by Gov. Kim Reynolds (R) in 2018. At the time of her appointment, Iowa was a Republican trifecta.
Noteworthy cases
AFSCME Council 61 v. Iowa and Iowa State Education Association v. Iowa (2019)
In two separate rulings issued on May 17, 2019, the Iowa Supreme Court upheld a 2017 law that amended collective bargaining rights for the state's public-sector workforce. The court ruled 4-3 in the state's favor in both cases.[13]
In 2017, then-Gov. Terry Branstad (R) signed into law a series of amendments to Iowa's public-sector labor relations law. As a result, collective bargaining units with less than 30 percent public-safety personnel (defined generally as firefighters and police officers) were barred from negotiating insurance, hours, vacations, holidays, overtime, and health and safety issues unless their employers elected to do so. Collective bargaining units exceeding the 30-percent threshold were exempted from these restrictions.[13]
The plaintiffs, American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Council 61 (AFSCME Council 61) and the Iowa State Education Association (ISEA), argued the amendments violated their equal protection and associational rights under the state constitution. The defendants were the state of Iowa and the Iowa Public Employment Relations Board. Both cases were filed in state district courts, which ruled against the plaintiffs. The plaintiffs appealed these decisions to the state supreme court.[14]
In each case, the court ruled 4-3 in the state's favor. In the majority opinion covering both cases, Justice Thomas Waterman wrote: "The 2017 amendments do not infringe on a fundamental right of association. The plaintiffs 'come to us with a problem suitable only for political solution.' The plaintiffs are free to attempt to persuade public employers, such as the State and local governments and school boards, to voluntarily bargain over formerly mandatory terms. The plaintiffs otherwise must look to the ballot box and the elected branches to change this lawfully enacted statute." Justices Susan Christensen, Edward Mansfield, and Christopher McDonald joined Waterman’s opinion.[14]
Chief Justice Mark Cady and Justices Brent Appel and David Wiggins dissented. In his dissent, Cady wrote: "[The] Iowa statute ends up treating many similarly situated public employees in Iowa differently based solely on the bargaining unit they belong to and not for the reason the constitution would justify different treatment of public employees. Our constitution requires laws to treat similarly situated people equally unless there is an adequate reason otherwise. In this case, the overinclusiveness and underinclusiveness written into the statute drowned this reason out."[14]
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.[15]
Iowa law states that no more than a simple majority of the state nominating commission may be of the same gender.[16]
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.[17]
Qualifications
To serve on this court, a judge must be:[17]
- 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).[18]
Chief justice
The chief justice of the supreme court is elected by peer vote and serves a two-year term.[17]
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.[15]
The map below highlights how vacancies are filled in state supreme courts across the country.
See also
External links
|
Personal |
Footnotes
- ↑ Radio Iowa, "Chief Justice Christensen voted in again by fellow justices," January 8, 2021
- ↑ Des Moines Register, "Susan Christensen sworn in as Iowa's newest Supreme Court justice," September 21, 2018
- ↑ 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.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 LittleVillageMag.com, "Gov. Reynolds appoints new Iowa Supreme Court judge," August 1, 2018
- ↑ Whotv.com, "Susan Christensen Follows in Father’s Footsteps as She Joins Iowa Supreme Court," September 21, 2018
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 Iowa Judicial Branch, "Susan Christensen," accessed July 15, 2021
- ↑ Justia, "Susan Christensen," accessed July 15, 2021
- ↑ Iowa Secretary of State, "Judges Standing for Retention November 8, 2016 General Election," accessed September 1, 2016
- ↑ WHOtv.com, "Iowa Supreme Court Justice Bruce Zager Retiring," May 4, 2018
- ↑ The seven factors were party registration, donations made to partisan candidates, donations made to political parties, donations received from political parties or bodies with clear political affiliation, participation in political campaigns, the partisanship of the body responsible for appointing the justice, and state trifecta status when the justice joined the court.
- ↑ An Indeterminate score indicates that there is either not enough information about the justice’s partisan affiliations or that our research found conflicting partisan affiliations.
- ↑ 13.0 13.1 The Gazette, "Iowa justices uphold controversial collective bargaining changes," May 17, 2019
- ↑ 14.0 14.1 14.2 Supreme Court of Iowa, "AFSCME Iowa Council 61 v. Iowa: Decision," May 17, 2019
- ↑ 15.0 15.1 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
- ↑ 17.0 17.1 17.2 National Center for State Courts, "Methods of Judicial Selection: Iowa," September 13, 2021
- ↑ Iowa Legislature, "Judicial Retirement System," updated September 2015
| ||||||||||
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
