Marsha Ternus

Marsha Ternus was appointed to the Iowa Supreme Court in 1993. Members of the court selected her as the court’s first woman chief justice in 2006. Her term on the court expired on December 31, 2010, after she and two of her colleagues on the court were not retained in the 2010 retention election. In May of 2012, Ternus and her two colleagues received the 2012 John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award. In announcing the award, the Kennedy Presidential Library stated the three justices “were chosen in recognition of the political courage and judicial independence each demonstrated in setting aside popular opinion to uphold the basic freedoms and security guaranteed to all citizens under the Iowa constitution.”

During her time as chief justice, Ternus made the improvement of court oversight of child welfare cases a priority for the Iowa Judicial Branch. In 2011, she was recognized for her work on behalf of children with the first award for outstanding contributions to the welfare of children given by the Iowa Children’s Justice Initiative, an award now named in her honor.

While chief justice, Ternus served on the Board of Directors of the Conference of Chief Justices and was a member of the Conference’s Courts, Children and Families Committee. In addition, she chaired the Conference’s Court Management Committee and its Resolutions Committee. In 2009, United States Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts appointed Ternus to the Judicial Conference Committee on Federal-State Jurisdiction.

Prior to her appointment to the Iowa Supreme Court, Ternus worked for sixteen years in the private practice of law in Des Moines, with a primary emphasis on civil litigation and insurance law.

After leaving the court, Ternus was a frequent lecturer on judicial independence and the politicization of the judiciary. Her article, Do Americans Still Value an Independent Judiciary?, appeared in the 2011 edition of The Book of the States, a publication of The Council of State Governments. Her opinion piece, Politics on the Bench–A Judge’s View of Partisanship at Play, was published in the National Law Journal in January 2014. She also served as an instructor on judicial independence for the National Judicial College.

Currently, Ternus practices law in Des Moines, serving as an arbitrator and providing appellate consulting. She is a commercial and consumer arbitrator on the American Arbitration Association’s National Roster of Arbitrators.

Ternus is a native Iowan, growing up on a farm northwest of Cedar Rapids. She received her bachelor’s degree with honors and high distinction, Phi Beta Kappa, from the University of Iowa. She earned her law degree with honors, Order of the Coif, from Drake University Law School. While at Drake, Ternus served as editor-in-chief of the Drake Law Review. Ternus was inducted into the Iowa Women’s Hall of Fame in 2015.