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73 Drake L. Rev. Discourse 1 (2026)

handle is hein.journals/dralours73 and id is 1 raw text is: HISTORICAL ANALYSIS IN IOWA STATUTORY CONSTRUCTION Karen L. Wallace* ABSTRACT This Article provides an empirical analysis of Iowa Supreme Court decisions from 2014-2024 that employ legislative history and other types of historical consideration in interpreting Iowa statutes. It updates a prior analysis that considered the years 2004-2013 and finds that the Iowa Supreme Court continues to consider historical sources when interpreting ambiguous statutes and has cited several new types of legislative history sources it did not use in the original study period. The Article also identifies a current debate on these practices, with two sitting justices questioning the validity of consulting legislative history for statutory interpretation. The Article concludes with research recommendations to help readers understand Iowa statutes and an appendix providing all the citations to Iowa legislative history the study found. TABLE OF CONTENTS T ab le of C ontents ............................................................................................. . 1 I. Intro du ction ......................................................................................... . 2 II. B ackg roun d ......................................................................................... . 3 A . D efin ition s ...................................................................................... . 3 B. Methodology ........................................................................................5 1. Term inology or Citation Errors ............................................... . 6 2. D iscerning Significance ...................................................... . 11 III. R e su lts ................................................................................................ . 12 IV. Implications and Research Recommendations ..................................... 17 V. Appendix...................................................................................................29 * Professor of Law Librarianship, Drake University School of Law. Thanks to the following individuals who generously shared their time and expertise: Michael Duster, Iowa Code Editor; Prof. and former Iowa Supreme Court Justice Brent Appel; Prof. Melissa Weresh; Prof. Rebecca Lutkenhaus; Assoc. Dean Tony Gaughan; Prof. Sayoko Blodgett-Ford; Caitlin Figge; Nathan Salo; Dawn Brown; and Hannah Basset. Thanks, too, to Drake Law School for its support of this work and to the Drake Law Review staff for their attentive editing and professionalism throughout the publication process. 1