Courageous?

Numerous accolades cite the unanimous opinion of the 7 member Iowa Supreme Court in their gay marriage ruling.

Only three justices, Marhsa Ternus, Michael Streit and David Baker, are ever honored.

They're honored for being fired.

Under Criteria and Eligibility for the Profiles in Courage award it states --

Ordinarily, the award will be made to living Americans who are or were elected officials.

Individuals at all levels of government—federal, state and local—are eligible for the award.

Emphasis will be placed on contemporary acts of political courage.

By that criteria all 7 justices could have, and should have, been honored.

The gay marriage ruling was in April of 2009 and the three justices were not retained until November of 2010.

By the speed this modern world operates, that's not contemporary, that's ancient history and the scientific community is united in that fact..

The Editorial Board of the Ragister would have us believe --

Courage is easy in principle but difficult in practice. Especially when your job is on the line.

The justices themselves tell us they knew before they issued the decision that they knew they could lose their jobs over it.

The justices were thinking of an election that was a year and a half away, even though no Supreme Court Justice had ever been removed since the implementation of the 1962 retention system?

These pretentious pontificators were just as stunned as their supporters that they were canned.