>>> Funding for this program was provided by friends, the Iowa PBS foundation, as well as generations of families and friends who feel passionate about the programs they watch on Iowa PBS.

As legislators gather in Iowa's capitol city of Des Moines, Susan Christensen, chief justice of the Iowa Supreme Court speaks before the 2022 legislative session.

This is the 2022 state of the judiciary address.

>> The convention is ready to receive her.

>> You have heard the motion, those in favor Yea, and those opposed say no.

The chair Announces the appointment of the senator from warren, senator Garrett, the senator from Polk, the representative from Buena vis that, and representative wolf on the part of the house.

Will the committee retire and perform its duty.

The convention will stand at ease.

>>> The convention will be in order.

The chair recognizings the sergeant at arms.

>> The executive council have arrived in the house chamber.

>> Please escort the executive council to their seats.

[ Applause ] the chair recognizes the sergeant at arms.

>> Mr. President, the justices of the Supreme Court, the chief judge, and the judges of the court of appeals have arrived in the house chamber.

>> Please escort the justices of the Supreme Court, the chief judge and judges of the court of appeals to their seats.

>>> The chair recognizes the sergeant at arms.

>> Mr. President, the family of the chief justice have arrived in the house chamber.

>> Please escort the chief justice's family to their seats.

>> The chair recognizes the Sergeant at Arms.

>> Mr. President, lieutenant governor adam Gregg has arrived in the house chamber.

>> Please escort lieutenant governor Gregg to his seat.

[ Applause ] >> The chair recognizes the Sergeant at Arms.

>> Mr. President, your committee to escort governor Kim Reynolds has arrived.

>> The committee will escort the honorable Kim Reynolds to her seat.

[ Appl The chair recognizes the Sergeant at Arms.

>> Mr. President, your committee to notify and escort chief justice Christensen has arrived.

>> The committee will escort the honorable Susan Christensen, chief justice of the Iowa Supreme Court to the rosterum.

it is my pleasure to introduce to you the chief justice of the Iowa Supreme Court Susan Christensen to deliver the state of the Judiciary message.

[ Applause ] >>> Thank you, everyone, please be seated.

Mr. President, Mr. Speaker, members of the General Assembly, governor Reynolds, once again behind me I said that before, I don't feel right doing that, lieutenant governor Gregg, state officials and colleagues, and family, friends Iowans sitting out here, and Iowans who are once again watching this remotely.

Thank you for the opportunity to address this joint convention of the 89th General Assembly on the condition of the judiciary.

As introduced, I am Suzy Christensen, chief of the Iowa Supreme Court.

I may be the face.

I may be the one that people are used to seeing when they hear something about the Supreme Court, or you may see my name on a document, but I certainly do not operate alone.

I have six colleagues, we make up the Iowa Supreme Court.

And no one decision comes out of that court that isn't either unanimous or a majority, so it doesn't feel quite right not to shout out to my colleagues, I'll name them off in order of seniority, and a little civics lesson, there are seven people on the Iowa supreme court, used to be nine, and moved down to seven by attrition to try and build up our court of appeals, justice Brent apple went on the court in '06 and he is retiring in July after 16 years.

Justice Tom waterman from the quad cities, justice Ed Mansfield who could not be here today but I know he's watching us.

Here's a shout out to him.

Justice Christopher McDonald who lives here in Des Moines.

Justice Dana Oxley who lives in the Cedar Rapids area, and justice Matt McDermott, his address is west Des Moines, but he's a Carol boy and I like that being from Harlan.

I continue to live in Harlan with my husband of 40 years, jay, who's here with me.

He's seated with four of our five children, and two of our seven grandchildren, and also joining me today is my mom.

Last year I gave my first condition of the judiciary, not only did I mix up the guys on my left and right, I referred to the opposite ones bigger bo and I messed up naming my own grandchildren.

I would like to stop their ruthless teasing and fix that monumental BOO, Logan, Karsyn, Connor, Emily, Jack, Levi, who was the forgotten child, and tour newest edition grayson who was not born yet at that time.

Emily Dickinson wrote hope is the thing with feathers.

I think of it a feathered bird perched on our shoulders of every human being, and you may remember that I started and ended last year's speech on that theme of hope.

At that point, we weren't quite one year into this pandemic, and emotions were swirling all about, frustration, anger, and a paralyzing fear just to name a few.

We are learning to adapt to unprecedented circumstances and my intent at that time was to send a positive message to let the people of Iowa know that the judiciary of Iowa did not succumb to COVID-19 and we remained open to business to ensure continued access to justice.

This year I'd like to make peace the theme of my condition of the judiciary.

It's been said that peace does not mean to be in a place where there's no noise, no trouble, and no hard work.

No, that is not what peace means.

Piece means to be in the midst of all of those things and still be calm in your heart.

While leading the judiciary during a pandemic that is now entering its third year, acquiring a sense of peace has been absolutely critical for me.

I'd like to share with you a story about finding peace amongst the noise, trouble and hard work that comes along with life's challenges.

I've only told this story a couple of times in two very quaint settings as a way of showing the importance of stick-to-itiveness, but it seems like an appropriate story to share today for a larger audience because of the pandemic times that we're experiencing and I think the temptation we all have to say, I don't want to do this anymore.

We still have very important work to do.

As you may know, my oldest son Nic was diagnosed with cerebral palsy at the age of 2, entering his adolescence, Nic's heart was full of wishes but hands down number one on that wish list was to drive a car.

What teenage kid in Iowa doesn't have that as their wish, especially rural Iowa.

So we signed him up for regular driver's Ed, a special driver's Ed in Omaha that would teach him to drive with hand controls.

On July 13th, 1998, which was the day -- the very day he turned 16 I took him to a driver's license station outside of Shelby county because our hometown office was not open that day for licensing.

We took a number and waited and waited and waited.

Other people came and they took a number, waited, got what they wanted and left.

I began to smell a rat.

I went to the front desk and I said, is there a problem.

At which time she told me, hey, we're just waiting for someone to take your son for a test drive, and I thought, no, no, no, no, I called in.

This was not the day for anybody to have to drive, not to mention we didn't bring his car with hand controls.

No, he has to drive.

I whispered outside of Nic's range, could I see your supervisor.

And so she took me back to the supervisor.

I went there by myself.

I went in her office and I asked her, why are you making Nic drive, and she said because we can all see he's handicapped.

I knew at that moment I wanted to pounce like a lawyer.

Typically I get paid to do that pouncing.

This I was going to do for free.

But I wasn't there as a lawyer.

I was there as a mom.

So I put on my sunglasses to hide my tears, and I walked out of her office and I headed over to Nic, and I said come on, bud, and his chin was quivering, and he goes am I not getting my license today, and I said no, bud, not today.

It was a painfully quiet ride all the way home.

P neither one of us said a word.

I knew what had just happened was big.

It was huge.

It was the biggest thing that had happened in his 16 years.

And I thought we need to talk about this.

So I pulled over and I said, Nic, are you okay with what happened back there?

No.

He slowly shook his head no, and I said, buddy, if you were my client, I would have said more, but I didn't want to embarrass you.

Nic said, I like it when you fight for me.

I considered myself to be hired at that moment.

This is the legal advice I gave my son, if something like this ever happens to you again, number one, say outloud, that's not fair.

That's universal, everybody knows that what means, that's not fair.

Number two, what's your name.

Number three, call me.

Call your mom.

So although Nic has always been aware of his diagnosis, as well as his family, we didn't talk about, I'm not kidding you, we never talked about CP, there's no reason to us.

We go on every day, it was a normal part of our lives.

I decided in that moment when I sit in the car, asked him something I had never dared before.

Nic, what is the hardest part about having CP, just one thing, and I decided at that moment, I made a conscientious effort not to say anything, to keep my mouth shut, and if anybody knows me, mom, that's a hard thing for me to do sometimes, so I intentionally thought I'm not going to suggest anything, I want to see what he says.

He looked straight ahead and pondered for probably 45 or 60 seconds.

That's a long silence, I thought he would be rattling off some stuff.

During that pause my mind raced, what's he going to say, I don't walk independently, I talk different or how about the fact that my driver's license dream just got crushed before my very eyes.

He turned to me, and this is exactly what he said, I can't think of anything.

Wow, he couldn't think of one thing that's hard about having CP, and I was ready to fill his head with a bunch of negative things that I could think of but up to that day we had been tackling only one day at a time, and some of those days were unremarkable, and some were a nightmare, like the day he turned 16.

But Nic's response, I can't think of anything gave me a sudden and palpable sense of peace amidst a storm that continues to rage even today.

If I ever had a doubt before and I have had many, for the first time, I truly believed we're going to get through this, Nic.

So you might wonder what my story about Nic has to do with the condition about the judiciary, today as I look at the judicial branches 2021 rear view mirror, I sense a similar feeling of peace in the midst of ongoing challenges, kind of like that peace I felt on the side of interstate 80 on July 13th, many years ago.

COVID has had an abrupt and brutal impact on the judiciary.

Last year we spent most of our time trying to figure out new ways to do basic fundamental tasks in our quest to make sure Iowans continue to have access to justice.

Another year has now passed.

What's different?

Not only did everyone in the judicial branch get really good at handling the daily challenges at that one time almost threw us under the bus, but we got stronger and we got better, and you can feel it.

We're not on autopilot but there is certainly a sense of calmness.

A sense of peace.

Each and every one of our judicial branch members has been a profile of what it takes to work effectively in a crisis and move us into this profound sense of peace within our branch, a sense of we can get through anything, even in the midst of this COVID storm that continues to rage.

We were also able to accomplish many great things this past year because of you, our legislature, providing us with a steadier platform on which to base Iowa's administration of justice by increasing our funding.

On behalf of the entire judiciary, thank you.

Thank you.

Here's just a few highlights of the 2021 judicial branch accomplishments as the pandemic continued to swirl around most every aspect of our lives.

These accomplishments helped to ensure all Iowans would have continued access to our judicial branch.

And by the way, a more detailed summary can be found in our annual report which was just released today.

You may recall that last year I talked about a distributive work pilot program coming out of the first and fourth judicial districts where work from one busier county is shared with judicial branch employees in a less busy county in the same district.

Like I said then, for one county to be able to assist another county in need within the same district, that keeps each district relevant, no matter the size.

Well, we expanded those pilots and today I'm excited to report that all eight judicial districts have either begun distributive work processing or they're in the final stages of implementing such a plan.

Thank you all eight districts for embracing it.

I think the state of Iowa will soon see how that has affected our every day access to justice.

Something else that has had uniform application across the state involves much needed improvements in our courtrooms.

When I was a trial judge, one of the most common complaints by a juror in a courtroom was that they couldn't hear very well.

They couldn't hear the witnesses testify.

They couldn't hear the lawyers questioning witnesses or giving opening or closing arguments.

The problem wasn't their hearing.

The problem has to do with poor acoustics in big old courtrooms.

It is incredibly concerning if a juror cannot hear every word uttered during a trial.

So something pretty cool happened to address that problem, and it may not have happened without COVID.

Through the use of Iowa CARES fund, new technology was installed in nearly every courthouse across the state.

This technology does more than allow us to hold virtual hearings with video conferencing, that was the purpose to address the social distancing issues, but one of the bells that came with this new technology is a sound system and strategically placed microphones which enhance the ability for jurors to hear clearly.

One of the whistles that came with this as well is the evidence presentation capability which allows jurors to clearly view exhibits from a distance instead of passing them one at a time through a jury box.

The benefits of this technology made available with CARES funding will be utilized by every county and certainly last year's beyond COVID.

During the last condition of the judiciary, I detailed the steps the judicial branch has taken to ensure all persons are treated equally before the law.

I also assured you that the judicial branch would remain steadfast in its commitment in identifying and implementing tools that will assist us in becoming better public servants.

In 2021, that monumental journey continued.

All Iowans should be proud that the judicial branch is taking active steps to become a leader when it comes to research and education on issues related to procedural fairness and access to justice.

Given the educational investment we've already made, the judicial branch is well positioned to continue our role as a leader in the area of educating judges and court personnel.

Of course leadership requires making sober assessments concerning what needs are not being met.

In 2021, we recognized that in order for us to continue to properly serve the people in this great state, we need to develop a more comprehensive educational curriculum for judges and judicial branch employees.

These educational opportunities would embrace a full range of adult learning.

Issues related to race and disproportionally will remain critical components of our educational curriculum.

Simply put, expanding the range of educational opportunities for judicial officers and judicial branch staff will help enable us to achieve our mission of administering justice under the law equally to all people, whether you live in Polk County or Page County.

[ Applause ] starting in July and for the first time since becoming chief, I began traveling around to all eight judicial districts.

I wanted to personally listen to the many voices of our Iowa legal profession.

I asked local lawyers and judges what are we doing well, what could we do better, and what do you want me to take back to Des Moines?

My so JOURN took me to due Buick, Mason city, Sioux City, council bluffs, Des Moines, Indianola, Cedar Rapids, Davenport, Ottumwa, fairfield, and Oskaloosa.

Ask my husband, I was gone a lot last summer.

Speaking of Oskaloosa, justice waterman, justice Oxley and I were invited to attend the Mahaska county bar's weekly lunch.

With the exception of Thanksgiving, the Mahaska county bar has been meeting for lunch every single Thursday since well before FDR was president of the United States.

Garold LESLINGA has been a card carrying member of the Mahaska county bar since 1948.

Interesting little fact for the legal nerds like myself, Mr. HESLINGA was the prevailing attorney in the spring gun case of KATH Katz, a staple of most every law school TORTS class.

Each and every town or city I visited was deeply committed to honoring the legal profession and proud to show off their stomping grounds.

What I learned through these visits will equip me with a deeper understanding of what Iowans from every corner of our sate need from the judiciary to ensure access to justice.

One of the reasons I wanted to get out to the districts was because the judicial branch was beginning to plan for a post COVID-19 world.

We may have jumped the gun a bit, but we were starting to plan, and we still are.

We reviewed our 30 formal COVID related orders entered by the court.

We considered numerous informal policies and practices that have popped up across the state.

Did it make sense to simply unwind all of our orders?

Should I just sign an order that says hey, that order is no longer good?

Maybe not.

Some of the emergency changes ended up being really good changes that never would have happened had it not been for the pandemic and the need for an emergency order.

In an effort to evaluate what changes were made in the prior year, the lessons learned task force was established by the Supreme Court.

Fondly refer to this as the Lemonade task force.

When life gives you lemons, it's not real original RG BU appropriate.

Court reporter, are district courts, trial judges appellate judges, clerks of court, attorneys in private practice, county attorneys, and state public defenders, they were tasked with 30 orders and making recommendations to the Supreme Court on rules, policies or practices that should be kept, modified, or kicked to the curb.

The task force submitted its recommendations to the Supreme Court, and after careful review of those recommendations as well as public comments that we sought, and also considering the current status of the pandemic, we entered one COVID order on December 6th to replace all of the prior orders.

This omnibus order recognizes the court system is 100% fully operational but we are continuing some practices adopted on an emergency basis when the pandemic first started.

These practices not only keep court proceedings moving along, but it allows people to participate in a meaningful way without jeopardizing health or conflicting with their work schedules.

Here are a few examples of what's included in the court's December 6th omnibus order, which balances the need for efficiency with the value of doing business in person.

In criminal cases, a defendant does not have to appear at certain pretrial proceedings or depositions and sentencing can go forward with parties appearing by remote video technology.

Juvenile courts may conduct proceedings such as child in need of assistance or termination of parental rights by video conference.

And in family law matters, courts may conduct divorce or custody trials by video conference as needed.

It's clear from a review of the lemonade task force's recommendations that there was a heavy reliance on the significant work being done by the criminal rules committee that had already been in place pre-pandemic.

This month the court is also approving and sending to the legislative council a comprehensive revision of Iowa's rules of criminal procedure.

Since the current criminal rules came into effect nearly 44 years ago, they have undergone piecemeal amendments but no comprehensive review.

In the words of justice Mansfield who chaired the task force reviewing our criminal rules, this piecemeal approach resulted in our rules becoming somewhat wordy, out of date, and hodgepodgy.

He's going to be thrilled that U TLI that in there.

That's his word, hodgepodgy, the comprehensive revision the work product of a task force made up of prosecutors, judges and defense lawyers from around the state as well as representation from drake and Iowa law schools.

The proposed rules are streamlined and fill in gaps where the old rules didn't reflect what is actually being done in courtrooms.

A few substantiative changes were recommended by the committee but only when there was a consensus between prosecution and defense that the change would be an improvement.

Many of those substantiative changes are the results of lessons learned during COVID.

More lemonade, and would make permanent some of the language that we have included in our December 6th supervisory order.

Right ant the time that the criminal rules committee was winding down their four-year project, we threw other court rules into the hopper for review.

In particular, justice Oxley is going to be chairing a task force that's already began its work on the rules of appellate procedure.

And justice Waterman is chairing a task force that's been charged with reviewing our rules of evidence.

I look forward to updating you on the work of those newer task forces when their reviews are complete.

You may remember last year I announced that juvenile justice is my priority as chief.

In particular, I am committed to ensuring that Iowa stands out among all the other states in implementing family first, a federal funding bill based on the belief that kids do best when they're with their families.

I am so thrilled to stand up here today and say to you, we can start to check that box off.

Since I last spoke to you, the four questions seven judges program catapulted from pilot status to statewide implementation based on its proven effectiveness at cutting removals by nearly half.

There is now talk about other specific questions being asked not only at the time of removal but at two other critical junctures in child welfare cases, one, when a child is actually RUFBLD, and two, when the family is reunited.

An example of what kind of question that could be asked at those critical stages came from one of our outstanding colleagues and a dear friend of mine, the late judge Colin Witt.

In his courtroom, Colin Witt began asking why can't this child go home today.

The WITT question has spread across the state.

Maybe it will have a pilot of its own.

We are not the only ones impressed with the four questions program, an Oregon publication entitled street roots is dedicated to the topic of homelessness and extreme poverty.

About two months ago they published an article, and it was called foster care shuffle and the entire focus was Iowa's four question seven judges program because it was showing such great success in reducing the number of moves for children in foster care.

Other states through this article were encouraged to replicate Iowa's program.

Apparently that's happening because we continue to field calls from other states who are attempting to adopt a similar program.

[ Applause ] thank you for two reasons, one, I got to have a sip of water, and two it just made me smile because you know that's my passion, juvenile, thank you.

And the judicial branch is not alone in its mission to keep Iowa's children in the home whenever it can be done safely.

As a part of family first implementation, Iowa's department of human services took the lead on reviewing Iowa's juvenile justice legislation which can be found in Iowa code chapter 232.

They are proposing code changes to comply with family first requirements.

I thank DHS for beginning this conversation, and I assure you that the judicial branch is committed to working with all stake holders in family first implementation.

I'd like to end my speech by sharing with you something truly exciting that will be happening in the not so distant future.

I think it's going to have a profound impact on Iowa's entire juvenile justice system.

In Iowa, our juvenile justice system is made up of two different kinds of judicial proceedings for children.

In child welfare cases, it is the court's job to protect the child from the actions of someone else.

Saladly, it's usually a close family member.

You may have heard of something we called CINA proceedings, child in need of assistance.

In those cases, the court relies heavily on the expertise and attention of the department of human services in trying to keep kids in their family home or reunite the family after they have been provided rehabilitative services.

A second kind of juvenile proceeding involves delinquency cases.

In those cases, it is the court's job to protect society from the criminal acts of a child.

In those types of cases, the court relies heavily on the expertise and attention of juvenile court probation officers in supervising the child and providing rehabilitative services.

Often times and extremely sad when we see it, children live in both of those worlds, sometimes at the same time, sometimes one is right after the other.

That's a CINA and a delinquency, where the child's parents cannot provide a safe home and the child has acted out in a way that has resulted in a criminal charge being filed.

It's been almost 30 years since Iowa's juvenile system has had a comprehensive holistic review, unlike nearly every other state in our country, our system is decentralized with its services, governance, funding and data collection divided among four separate entities.

The judicial branch, the department of human services, the department of human rights, and the department of public health.

That's a lot of moving parts.

In the past few years, stake holders from those groups have implemented various programs intended to improve the juvenile system from their perspective.

While well intentioned, those individualized improvements oftentimes have had unintended ripples throughout the system.

The Iowa Supreme Court recently established a juvenile justice task force to review the continuum of care in our juvenile justice system and make recommendations to improve services, governance, funding and data collection as well as address the state's assistance, racial and gender disparities.

Task force members are made up of all kinds of experts in the juvenile justice world, such as service providers, law enforcement, judges, juvenile court officers, county attorneys, public defenders, private attorneys, youth and family members, as well as the state entities I mentioned earlier.

Knowing that the recommendations may very well include revisions to our current laws, we are honored to have legislators on our task force as well.

Thank you senators Cournoyer and RAGAN as well as representatives, Mohr and Wes El high temperature KROESCHELL for agreeing to serve on this very important task force.

The work of this task force could not be completed without staff support which is being provided by Creighton, drake and Iowa law schools.

It is our plan to release a task force report in November of this year so stay tuned.

I promised that was the last thing I was going to talk about to share the exciting news about the newly formed juvenile justice task force.

But I would like to add a PS, remember Shawn and his journey through family treatment court.

In precipitation of today's speech, I had to check in with him.

I learned that he is in the process of buying his first home ever, and of course I ask Ked him how many days of sobriety, and as of today that number is 1,396.

[ Applause ] if you think you're seeing double, he's got his twin brother up there.

So Shawn is here today with his son Rylan,and Shawn's twin brother Jason.

Once again, Shawn, thank you for allowing me to publicly share your story of hope and show people how Iowa's judicial branch provided you a path for your enduring sobriety.

In closing, I want to thank my colleagues for their commitment to our work and to the legislature for its support of our work, and for giving me this opportunity to speak with you today.

As chief, I look forward to providing Iowans with a sense of peace that we've got this.

The judicial branch will continue to block out all the noise brought on by the pandemic and we will continue to stay layer focused on our steadfast commitment to ensure that each and every Iowan has meaningful access to justice.

Thank you.

[ Applause ] [ Applause ].

>>> Will the committee to escort the chief justice please come forward and escort chief justice Christensen from the house chamber.hief justice Christensen from the house chamber.Chief justice Christensen from the house chamber.ustice Christensen from the house chamber.Justice Christensen from the house chamber.

[ Applause ] >>> Will the committee to escort the governor please come forward.

>>> Funding for this program was provided by Friends, the Iowa PBS foundation, as well as generations of family and friends who feel passionate about the programs they watch on Iowa PBS.