After Republicans took control of the state legislature and governor’s office, Cady became a key swing vote on the court in recent years, particularly when Republicans passed new laws aimed at expanding gun rights, restricting abortion, and barring gay marriage.
Cady wrote the opinion in 2009 that made Iowa the nation’s third state to permit same-sex marriage, which came years before the 2015 U.S. Supreme Court decision that struck down gay marriage bans throughout the country.
The ruling led to a backlash from conservatives, who voted out three of the justices in 2010, though Cady wasn’t up for a retention vote that year.
Last year, Cady led a 5-2 majority of justices who concluded that a law requiring women to wait 72 hours before a doctor could perform an abortion was unconstitutional because “autonomy and dominion over one’s body go to the very heart of what it means to be free.”
The ruling angered conservatives and led to passage of a law this year that gave the governor more control over nominees to put on the courts.
The law also reduced Cady’s eight-year term as chief justice by three years, forcing him to step down as chief in 2021.
Cady sided with the majority in a 4-3 decision three years ago that barred sentences of life without parole for teenagers, finding it cruel and unusual punishment.
-``And he worked to limit a 2017 law that allowed guns to be carried in courthouses throughout the state.
After issuing an order banning guns from courthouses, he compromised with a revised order allowing county supervisors or other local government officials to file written requests to allow guns in their buildings.
