Group says Iowa needs more women judges

The Iowa Commission on the Status of Women says the Governor needs to appoint more women as judges. Iowa Commission on the Status of Women executive director Charlotte Nelson says there’s been progress, but not enough. In 1990, one of the nine justices on the Iowa Supreme Court was a woman. Today, two of the nine are women. Special commissions nominate five people for each opening at the district, appellate and supreme court levels, and the Governor picks from that list. Fifty-one-year-old Michael Streit was sworn in yesterday afternoon as the newest justice on the Iowa Supreme Court. His move from the Court of Appeals to the Supreme Court creates an opening, and Nelson says one of the five people nominated to fill that vacancy is a woman.