As first reported in Gavel Grab: 

Three former Iowa Supreme Court justices, removed from the court by voters incensed over a same-sex marriage ruling, talked candidly at an awards ceremony about some of the stresses in store for jurists who make unpopular decisions.

“We were called activist judges — elitist, out of touch with the will of the people — and frankly, a lot worse,” said former Justice David Baker, according to a Des Moines Register article. But he would not have changed his vote even had he known what would follow, he said.

Former Justice Michael Streit said he received an angry letter from a Korean War veteran who fumed that “Hitler treated queers the way they should be treated — in the gas chamber,” and who declared, “You are bastards.”

Former Chief Justice Marsha Ternus said, “Efforts to intimidate the judiciary and turn judges into theologians or politicians in robes” do not advance justice.

The three were presented Profile in Courage awards by the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation in Boston. They took part in a unanimous court ruling that permitted same-sex marriage in Iowa, then the trio faced a backlash in 2010 retention elections. Out-of-state interest groups played a major role in funding the ouster drive.

Bob Vander Plaats, a conservative leader in the forefront of the ouster drive, said further such campaigns are made more likely by the awards this week. “I think this kind of far-left award … only incites that,” Vander Plaats said. In November, Justice David Wiggins will be up for a retention election. 

The American Judges Association mid year symposium was fortunate enough to have Justice Streit as one of the featured presentors. With all due respect to Mr Vander Plaats, the Profiles in Courage award is hardly just some kind of left wing award. After listeing to Justice Streit a better description is these justices received the award not because of ideology, but because they did what they thought was right, they tried their best to explain why they thought the Iowa Constitution compelled the result, and they stand by their principles to this day. That is what judicial courage is about.