Sign Up
HF 2719 Iowa House · 2025-2026 Regular Session

A bill for an act relating to the collection and publication of judicial officer performance information.

HF 2719 requires Iowa’s state commissioner of elections to collect and publish specific, data-driven performance metrics for district court judges, including bond-setting patterns, release decisions for violent vs. nonviolent offenses, sentencing comparisons, reversal rates, case processing times, and case disposal rates. The bill directly affects all district court judges, associate juvenile judges, and associate probate judges in Iowa by mandating public disclosure of these metrics in an online, searchable format with machine-readable data. Key provisions include adding reliability warnings for metrics based on small case volumes, requiring a methodology report explaining how data is adjusted, and including a mandatory disclaimer noting that statistics reflect case complexity more than judicial correctness. The information is intended to inform voters during judicial retention elections, with judges also allowed to add brief personal statements about their philosophy.
Issues: ✓ Criminal JusticeSupports Criminal JusticeRequires public disclosure of judicial metrics including sentencing patterns and release decisions, enhancing court transparency and accountability in criminal justice.85% confidence
Bill status passed 3 of 5 stages cleared
Introduction
Feb 2026
Committee Review
Mar 2026
House Passage
Mar 2026
Senate Passage
Governor
Introduced Feb 24, 2026 Last action Mar 10, 2026
Maddy AI version diff · 1 comparison

What changed between versions

Introduced → Reprinted · 7 edits
MODERATE
The bill was significantly rewritten to shift responsibility from the judicial branch to the state commissioner of elections for collecting and publishing judicial performance data. The new version adds specific requirements for data standardization, peer-group comparisons, and a public repository of written opinions, while also introducing a reliability warning system for metrics based on small sample sizes.
Scope change
The bill's scope expanded from simple data collection by the judicial branch to a comprehensive data transparency system managed by the state commissioner of elections, including new requirements for methodology reporting and public access to court opinions.
REQUIREMENT

Responsibility for collecting and publishing judicial performance information shifted from the state court administrator to the state commissioner of elections.

New requirement for the commissioner to develop and report a case complexity index and methodology for peer-group comparisons to ensure fair evaluation of judges.

Added requirement for a reliability warning to be displayed next to any performance metric based on fewer than 90% statistical confidence cases.

New mandate for the state commissioner of elections to maintain a searchable public repository of judges' written opinions and orders from the current term and six preceding years.

Added requirement for all collected data to be available for public download in machine-readable open format with equal prominence and accessibility.

Expanded performance metrics to include categorization by offense class and issue type, plus trend lines showing five-year rolling data.

TIMELINE

Established specific timelines including eighteen months for methodology reporting and one year for providing the commissioner access to court information system data.

Floor votes · House Mar 4, 2026

How they voted

73–18
Passed · 8 other
Total votes 99
Mar 4, 2026
D Democratic32
10 Yea 17 Nay 5
53% Nay
R Republican67
63 Yea 1 Nay 3
94% Yea
Vote distribution
All Yea All Nay Mixed No data
Full legislative history

Actions timeline

Total actions
9
Key actions
3
Committee
1
Amendments
2
Mar 10, 2026
Upper · Passed
Subcommittee: Schultz, Blake, and Bousselot.
upper
Mar 4, 2026
Lower · Passed
Passed House, yeas 73, nays 19.
lower
Mar 4, 2026
Lower · Passed
Amendment H-8115 adopted.
lower
Mar 3, 2026
Introduced
Amendment H-8115 filed.
lower
Feb 24, 2026
Introduced
Introduced, placed on calendar.
lower
0 primary · 0 co-sponsors

Sponsors

No sponsor information available.