After voters ousted three Iowa Supreme Court justices who ruled unanimously to legalize same-sex marriage, the State Judicial Nominating Commission in January offered up nine replacement candidates. Among them was University of Iowa law professor Angela Onwuachi-Willig, who stood out among her fellow nominees as the only woman, the only minority, the only academic and the only one younger than 45 — she is 38. She was also the only person on the list with an extensive catalogue of scholarly writing on racial and gender equality.
Republican Gov. Terry Branstad did not appoint Onwuachi-Willig to the Iowa Supreme Court — a decision that leaves Iowa as one of only two high courts made up exclusively of white men. “I felt that I had made good arguments about the contributions I could bring to the court, but I understood the politics behind it,” she said.
