Iowa: still fighting back

The Iowa Supreme Court issued its ruling allowing same-sex "marriage" in 2009 and set off a political firestorm that included debate over changing Iowa's merit-based judicial selection process. It also sparked the Iowa For Freedom campaign against the justices' retention.

Hanson (the original appellate judge who's decision was upheld in by the Iowa Supreme Court) said the effort is an attempt to politicize the bench.

"You're being asked to turn this retention vote into a referendum on one decision amongst hundreds of thousands of decisions," he said. "That's not what the retention system is intended to do."

Hanson is one of several judges up for retention this year, but there hasn't been any efforts to oust him. In 2007, a group of conservatives launched an unsuccessful attempt to have Hanson impeached.

Chuck Laudner, Iowa For Freedom's campaign manager, said Hanson's argument about the retention vote doesn't hold water.

"They're going to have a hard time explaining to me why I have the right to vote yes or no on a ballot, but if I vote no, somehow I'm abusing the system," Laudner said.

Laudner said both rulings overstepped their bounds by asserting "an entirely false premise" for their decision in Varnum by asserting the right to overturn a long-standing premise that marriage was between one man and one woman. That "turned the Constitution into a coaster," and threatened other rights, he said.