Matt Meiners | Opinion Co-Editor

Last week Buena Vista University had the opportunity to host the Iowa Supreme Court while they conducted two oral hearings. This is a new push they are doing to have hearings around the state of Iowa. Since Supreme Court hearings are held in their building down in Des Moines, it is hard for people to get there during the middle of the week to see what the Supreme Court all does. That is when they started a new program in which they travel throughout the state having hearings so the Justices can be more connected with the citizens of Iowa.

The two cases were heard are City of Sioux City v. Michael Jon Jacobsma and State of Iowa v. Donald Joseph King. The City of Sioux City v. Michael Jon Jacobsma is a case that discusses the constitutionality of traffic cameras on speeding. When the camera takes a picture it takes it of the license plate and sends the ticket to the owner of the vehicle. The problem is that there could be a chance that the owner is not driving the vehicle. At that point, it became very blurry what the accused is supposed to do. Because of that, it is hard to say that justice is being served adequately, and therefore causes the question of constitutionality.

State of Iowa v. Donald Joseph King is a case that looks at the rights of parolees. If someone is on parole, can their probation officer enter their house at any time without a search warrant? There are a lot of questions to be asked in this case. Do they need probably cause? Are they free citizens of the state? If they weren’t on probation wouldn’t they still be in prison?

These cases come with a much more descriptive background and it would take quite a while to describe them. The question is, how will the Supreme Court rule them? After having the opportunity to eat supper with the Justices and listen to the two hearings, it is hard to say how they perceive the law. That is what it comes down to. The seven Iowa Supreme Court Justices look at the case to see if it effects, or is effected by the Iowa Constitution.

I personally could not tell which way they were leaning. Justices do a great job asking questions during the hearing that get them the answers they need without giving up which way they lean. Sometimes they will ask questions to test a theory they have, or to play the devil’s advocate just to see how the attorney answers the question, or just because they are curious. I personally enjoyed the experience of going to the hearings and seeing how they do things. This was an amazing educational experience that I hope BVU will be able to have again. The opinions of the justices will be released in a couple of months. At that point, whatever they rule will hold as the law of Iowa.