A Polk County judge has ruled in favor of 23 Republican legislators who filed a lawsuit against Governor Tom Vilsack over the governor’s ban on discrimination against gay and “trans-gender” state workers. Lawyer Mark McCormick, Vilsack’s democrat opponent in 1998, was the lawyer for the G-O-P lawmakers. He says the court ruling says the executive order constituted lawmaking, and the court agreed only the legislature can make laws.Vilsack’s executive order had barred discrimination against people based on their “gender, gender identity, sexual orientation and marital status.”McCormick, a former Iowa Supreme Court justice, is pleased with the ruling. Senate Republican Leader Stewart Iverson of Dows was among the legislators who sued the democrat governor.Iverson says Vilsack was trying to write laws — a task Iverson contends is something only the legislature can do.Iverson says the lawsuit won’t harm working relations between the republican-controlled legislature and Vilsack, who’s a democrat. As for how gay and lesbian state workers should react, Iverson says they should just keep on doing their jobs.Governor Vilsack declined to speak to the media. His press secretary, Joe Shannahan, issued a prepared statement, which said Vilsack will carefully review the judge’s ruling before deciding whether to file an appeal. Shannahan, who would only read from the prepared statement, said there should be some sort of protections for gay or lesbian state workers.Vilsack’s prepared statement also called for public disclosure of the contributors who financed the lawsuit for republican legislators.
