Iowans for Freedom Launching Anti-Judge Bus Tour Across Iowa // Updated to Include Bus Schedule

(Originally written on 09/08/12): There is this group called Iowans for Freedom, which is basically a spin-off of The FAMiLY Leader and it's lead by tons of The FAMiLY Leader's leaders such as Bob Vander Plaats and Tamara Scott. They have plans to launch yet another anti-gay bus tour across Iowa. The bus tour's message? "No Wiggins". Iowa Supreme Court Justice David Wiggins is one of the justices who unanimously struck down Iowa's DOMA law back in 2009, which paved the way for gay and lesbian couples like myself and my husband to become legally married in the state of Iowa. He is on the ballot this year for a retention vote. But in 2010, BVP organized an effort to get three of Wiggins' judicial colleagues thrown off the bench during their own retention campaigns.

The "NO Wiggins" bus tour wants to "educate voters about the need to affirm judicial integrity by removing politics from the court via activist judges like Wiggins." In other words, Iowans for Freedom wants to remove politics from the court by inserting politics into the court and warn them that they must issue court decisions that they approve of or else they will be branded as "activist judges" and kicked out over one specific court decision.

The Iowans for Freedom bus tour will begin early on September 24th in Des Moines and will travel to 17 different Iowa communities. The bus tour is sponsored by CitizenLink (a Focus on the Family program) and The FAMiLY Leader and co-sponsored by the National Organization for Marriage and CatholicVote.org.

In other words, Iowans for Freedom consists on one Iowa-based organization plus one Colorado-based group, one Illinois-based group, and one New Jersey-based group. And these out-of-state groups have promised to flood roughly $100,000 into Iowa to defeat this one judge.

One More Quick Thing: Check out this blog article by ARSARBENT featuring a video produced by Iowans for Freedom and featuring BVP and Tamara Scott. The video tries characterizing Justice Wiggins as this activist judge who is trying to get around the Iowa Constitution, presumably on the issue of gay marriage. Of course, Wiggins' words were totally taken out of context. He was not trying to get around the constitution. He was interviewing a new candidate for the Iowa Supreme Court. She was not licensed to practice law in the state of Iowa and that is a requirement for the Iowa Supreme Court. He was asking her -- using dry humor -- why they should send her name to Governor Branstad as an applicant when sheconstitutionally doesn't qualify for the position (at least not at the time of the interview).

Updated on 09/20/12: Iowans for Freedom announced their bus tour dates earlier today. Their anti-judge bus plans to visit Des Moines, Pella, Ottumwa, Burlington, and Muscatine on Monday, September 24th. They plan to visit Davenport, Cedar Rapids, Dubuque, and Cedar Falls on Tuesday, September 25th. They plan to visit Mason City, Marshalltown, Fort Dodge, Carroll on Wednesday, September 26th. Finally, the plan to visit Council Bluffs, Sioux City, Spencer, and Orange City on Thursday, September 27th. As always, BVP and his friends are avoiding Iowa City and Johnson County.