Both the amendment and residency requirement are good ideas. The amendment is going to take a while because an amendment has to be approved in two consecutive legislative sessions and the sessions in Iowa are two years long. That would make 2012 likely the earliest time for a public vote on the amendment. A residency requirement would be easier to enact but the papers are suggesting the legislature is not likely to do anything about the ruling and this statement from the Senate Majority Leader and House Speaker suggests that is probably right. Representative King’s statement is helpful, though, because the focus does
need to turn to responding to the overreach.
– William Duncan is director of the Marriage Law Foundation.