Court Opinion

ID: 9524861
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 02:57:52.525674+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:12:08.442548
License: Public Domain

McCORMICK, Justice
(dissenting).
It was not necessary for respondent to establish that the denial of a right to jury trial under chapter 252A violates equal protection in every situation in which the statute might be applied. It was sufficient for him to demonstrate that the refusal of a jury trial infringed equal protection as the statute was applied to him. Because I believe respondent met his burden, I would hold that the trial court erred in overruling his request for jury trial.
The State concedes it had two alternative remedies in seeking adjudication of the paternity and support issues. It has standing to pursue these remedies even if the child has not received public assistance. See §§ 252A.6, 675.19, The Code. It also has standing under each chapter when public assistance has been provided. See §§ 252A.5(5), .13, 675.8. The only difference in the mechanism for adjudication when the parties reside in Iowa is that no right to jury trial is recognized when the action is brought under chapter 252A.
For this discrimination to be justified, it must be rationally related to some difference in the legitimate objectives of the statutes. Baxstrom v. Herold, 383 U.S. 107, 111, 86 S.Ct. 760, 763, 15 L.Ed.2d 620, 624 (1966) (“Equal protection does not require that all persons be dealt with identically, but it does require that a distinction made have some relevance to the purpose for which the classification is made.”); Brightman v. Civil Service Commission, 204 N.W.2d 588, 591 (Iowa 1973) (“The constitutional equal protection safeguard requires that the line drawn be a rational one.... ”).
The discrimination in intrastate cases is not rationally related to objectives of chapter 252A in interstate cases. No procedural difference exists between intrastate actions under chapters 252A and 675 except that the right to jury trial is not provided in chapter 252A. When an intrastate action is brought to obtain support for a dependent child, as in the present case, no ground exists for differentiating between the legislature’s objectives in the two statutes. The minor substantive differences affecting the support award have no rational connection to the presence or absence of a jury.
I would hold that a respondent in an intrastate chapter 252A case has a right to jury trial when he would have that right if the same action were brought under chapter 675. Denial of the right infringes his right to equal protection under U.S.Const. amend. XIV and Iowa Const, art. I, § 6.
If the legislature deems jury trials to be inconvenient or inefficient in paternity cases, it has the prerogative of amending chapter 675 to withdraw the right. This court does not have constitutional authority to nullify the right by permitting jury trials to be denied in identical actions under chapter 252A.
ALLBEE, J., joins this dissent.