Judges sided with the state in rulings on two cases issued Monday.
A district court judge ruled there is “no evidence” the board that governs the University of Iowa violated the state’s open meeting law when board members first met with the man they’d ultimately hire the school’s president.
The judge said “it may have looked problematic” that then-Board of Regents president Bruce Rastetter organized small group meetings with Bruce Harreld, but the judge dismissed the lawsuit that charged the board should have been advising the public they were meeting with Harreld.
In the other case, another district court judge dismissed a lawsuit by the state’s largest employee union that challenged the state’s new collective bargaining law. AFSCME argued the law’s unconstitutional and the group’s president says they are likely to appeal the case all the way to the Iowa Supreme Court.