Officials with the Iowa Judicial Branch report 16 Iowans have applied with the State Judicial Nominating Commission to fill the vacancy on the Iowa Court of Appeals that occurred when Judge Gayle Vogel retired on July 1, 2019. Among the applicants scheduled to be interviewed Monday, August 5th, is Julie Schumacher, District Court Judge, Third Judicial District in Schleswig, and Molly Weber, Assistant Attorney General, Iowa Attorney General’s Office, in Adel. (You can view the entire list of applicants here: https://www.iowacourts.gov/newsroom/news-releases/list-of-applicants-and-interview-schedule-for-iowa-court-of-appeals-vacancy/ )

The commission welcomes written comments from the public about the qualifications of any of the applicants. Comments must be submitted to the commission members via email no later than 5:00 p.m. August 2, 2019 at the email addresses on the State Judicial Nominating Commission website and by email to the Secretary of the commission at sjnc@iowa.gov.

The commission will meet Monday, August 5, 2019, in the Iowa Supreme Court Courtroom on the fourth floor of the Judicial Branch Building to interview the applicants for the vacancy. The public is invited to observe the interviews in the courtroom. The interviews will be live streamed and the videos archived on the Iowa Judicial Branch YouTube channel. Immediately following the interviews, the commission will begin deliberations to select a slate of three nominees from the group of applicants.  Once the commission selects its slate of nominees, the commission will forward those names to the governor. The governor will then have thirty (30) days in which to appoint the new judge.