Student and Teacher Resource Page for United States and Iowa Constitutions

To help prepare students and teachers for the upcoming America 250 Celebration, the Iowa Judicial Branch and The Iowa State Bar Association have created a one-stop resource to better understand the importance of the United States and Iowa Constitutions. The Constitution Day 2025 page on the Iowa Judicial Branch website presents a constitutional case argued before the Iowa Supreme Court, educational videos, and podcasts about the Iowa Constitution and the courts. The resource page can be found at https://www.iowacourts.gov/iowa-courts/supreme-court/constitution-day-2025.

The resource page gives students materials to study an Iowa court case, State Public Defender v. Iowa District Court for Scott County, with a constitutional issue involving a defendant's right to legal representation. The case will be livestreamed from Bettendorf High School on Tuesday, September 16, at 7:00 pm on the resource page. To help students discover more about the case, they can download a case summary that looks at the legal issues, the appellate briefs prepared by the attorneys for the parties, and the video of the oral arguments during which the justices ask questions of the attorneys. The livestream video will remain posted after the oral arguments. The final opinion of the supreme court that explains in detail the court's ruling and how the court reached its decision will be added when it is issued by the court.

The resource page features a "Welcome" video from Chief Justice Susan Christensen and links to podcasts with interviews with supreme court justices and others about the United States and Iowa Constitutions. The podcasts include interviews with Justice David May on the separation of powers, State Historical Museum of Iowa Curator Leo Landis about Iowa's Constitutional Conventions, Justice Dana Oxley on the similarities and differences of the United States and Iowa Constitutions, retired Justice Brent Appel about the Iowa Constitution, Justice Edward Mansfield on how the Iowa Supreme Court selects its caseload, and Chief Justice Christensen recognizing last year's 60th anniversary of the United States Supreme Court case Gideon v. Wainwright, in which the United States Supreme Court ruled that state courts are constitutionally required to provide an attorney to defendants who cannot afford one in criminal cases.

Iowa America 250 commemorates the 250th Anniversary of the founding of the United States through the Declaration of Independence and the American Revolution. More information is available at https://history.iowa.gov/learn/iowa-america-250/iowa-america-250. Constitution Day recognizes the ratification of the Constitution of the United States on September 17, 1787. In 1911, the State of Iowa was the first state to celebrate Constitution Day. In 2004, legislation established the Federal observance of Constitution Day. The Constitution of Iowa was adopted in convention on March 3, 1857.

The resource page includes links to the United States and Iowa Constitutions and will remain active until September 2026, when a new case is chosen for students to study, and additional resource materials are added for the next Constitution Day.