Chief Justice to address open meeting of Ames League of Women Voters

FROM THE LEAGE OF WOMEN VOTERS'

The League of Women Voters’ program meeting will be held 7 p.m. Thursday, March 22 at , 1416 20th St.

This month’s topic is "Choosing and Keeping the Best Possible Judges."

Chief Justice Mark Cady of the Iowa Supreme Court will talk about how Iowa's judicial selection and retention system works, what changes have been proposed over the years, and what effects such changes might have on our justice system. 

As usual with League programs, the public is encouraged to attend, and there will be time for questions.

Justice Cady, Ft. Dodge, was appointed to the Supreme Court in 1998 and was named Chief Justice in 2011.

He was born in Rapid City, South Dakota. Chief Justice Cady earned both his undergraduate and law degrees from Drake University.

After graduating from law school in 1978, he served as a judicial law clerk for the Second Judicial District for one year. He was then appointed as an assistant Webster County attorney and practiced with a law firm in Fort Dodge. Cady was appointed a district associate judge in 1983 and a district court judge in 1986. In 1994, he was appointed to the Iowa Court of Appeals. He was elected chief judge of the Court of Appeals in 1997.

Chief Justice Cady is a member of the Order of Coif (honorary), Iowa State Bar Association, Iowa Judges Association, and Iowa Academy of Trial Lawyers (honorary).

He is the Iowa chair of iCivics Inc. He also served as chair of the Iowa Supreme Court Task Force on the Court's and Communities' Response to Domestic Abuse and the Drake Law School Board of Counselors. Chief Justice Cady is the coauthor of Iowa Practice: Lawyer and Judicial Ethics (Thomson-West 2007). He is also the coauthor of Preserving the Delicate Balance Between Judicial Accountability and Independence: Merit Selection in the Post-White World, 16 Cornell J.L. & Pub. Pol'y 101 (2008), and the author of Curbing Litigation Abuse and Misuse: A Judicial Approach, 36 Drake L. Rev. 481 (1987).

Chief Justice Cady is an adjunct faculty member at Buena Vista University and serves on the President's Advisory Council. He is married and has two children.

His current term expires December 31, 2016.