A handful of House conservatives want to reduce the pay of Iowa Supreme Court justices involved in a 2009 decision striking down a ban on same-sex marriages as part of an effort to maintain the balance of power in state government. “It’s our responsibility to maintain the balance of power” between the three co-equal branches of government, Rep. Tom Shaw, R-Laurens, said Tuesday. The justices “trashed the separation of powers” with their unanimous Varnum v. Brien decision and implementation of same-sex marriage without a change in state law banning any marriages expect between one man and one woman, added Rep. Dwayne Alons, R-Hull. [...] “It’s not the merits of what they said in that decision,” added Alons. He’s trying to stop “an encroaching wave” of judicial activity including decisions on nude dancing and landowner liability – decisions the Legislature also is trying to correct through legislation this session.

Thankfully, this isn't going anywhere because Democrats control the Iowa senate, but it's absolutely stone cold nuts I'd almost have more respect for these clowns if they had the courage to stand up and admit they don't care one bit about separation of powers and that the only thing that matters to them is perpetuating a bigoted policy approved by voters in a different era. But the fact that they aren't doing that and are instead hiding behind a bogus process argument that would upend the notion of judicial review underscores the remarkable and rapid transformation of American attitudes towards marriage equality, because when the bigots would rather talk about how Marbury vs. Madison probably isn't such a good idea after all instead of the substance of their position, then even they know that they've lost.