Continued from January 2025 blog post
Linn County Attorney Nick Maybanks, a Democrat, recently prosecuted a case involving a 13-year-old girl he calls “A” who’d been molested by her dad for years. “Although we respect the decision of the Iowa Supreme Court and their authority to interpret the Iowa Constitution, we also have a choice,” Maybanks said, “and that choice is to enact a constitutional amendment to protect victims like A.”
Dallas County Attorney Matt Schultz, a Republican, said the court’s ruling creates “a real problem” for prosecutors pursuing child abuse cases, and the constitutional amendment would let voters fix it. “I can’t tell you how disappointed I am in the outcome of the court decision from this summer. These are real crimes,” Schultz said. “…If the institutions of our government won’t protect those who are most vulnerable — our children, then it’s up to us as a people.”
Wayne County Sheriff Keith Davis, president of the Iowa State Sheriffs and Deputies Association, said it’s important to protect children, who are the most vulnerable in these situations. “It’s hard enough to get people to come forward, especially a five year old or a 10 year old when they’ve been a victim of violence, sex abuse,” Davis said. “Even in our small county we see plenty of that.”
The process of amending Iowa’s constitution takes a few years, so this fix would not be immediate. Legislators have to approve the language of an amendment twice and 2028 is the earliest it could be presented to voters in a General Election. Legislators could schedule a statewide special election on a constitutional amendment sometime in 2027, but the last time that happened was in June of 1999. Both proposed amendments on that special election ballot failed.