For many ordinary Iowans, the legal system no longer feels accessible, understandable, or affordable.

Across the United States, an estimated 92% of low-income Americans do not receive adequate legal assistance for civil legal problems.[1] Meanwhile, Iowa’s courts operate through hundreds of procedural rules, technical filings, deadlines, and legal barriers that ordinary citizens are often expected to navigate without professional representation.

Courts should exist to create justice from unjust situations — not to create procedural traps that ordinary people cannot realistically navigate.

As Abraham Lincoln once warned:

“The people are the rightful masters of both Congress and the courts.” [2]

But how can citizens remain the rightful masters of a system that has become so complex they can no longer meaningfully access or understand it?

That is why I spent many years building the legal self-help website ReUniteTheStates.org — transcribing thousands of legal terms onto a publicly-available website. Although this was done on my own time and with limited resources, my plan below brings the same idea to Iowa: making our justice system accessible and understandable. 

Every time we give the Pledge of Allegiance, we re-affirm a promise to one another, "Liberty and justice for all." While many believe we are delivering exactly that, that is not the case for many Iowans who never make the news to share their stories. Soon, I will be sharing some of my stories publicly — everything from an attorney changing my plea from "not guilty" to "guilty" without telling me, to being ordered to pay the attorney's fees of people who performed predatory actions against  me. They were able to afford an attorney, and I wasn't, and I know I'm not alone in this. 

Look at the farmers across the state who pour their money into trying to protect their pipelines, only to be left broke and with a pipeline running through their lands without their consent. I'm not saying that simplifying our justice reform will prevent every injustice from happening, but it might give the common person a shot if we can at least speak the same language as the courts.

My justice reform platform is built around a simple principle:

Justice must become understandable, accessible, and accountable to the common people.

I believe we can achieve this by simplifying the court rules and by getting attorneys and lawyers out from behind desks and in front of high school seniors and communities how to navigate our overly-complex justice system. 

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I. JUSTICE ACCESSIBILITY ACT

Iowa’s legal system should not function like an insiders-only club. Under my administration, we will work to make the courts understandable and accessible to the public they are supposed to serve.

Key Reforms

1. Simplify Iowa’s Rules of Procedure into a simpler step-by-step procedure anyone can follow

Iowa currently operates through hundreds of procedural court rules that are difficult for ordinary citizens to navigate without expensive legal representation. View the Iowa Rules of Civil Procedure an Rules of Evidence, for example. There are approximately 372 rules in total. No parent or fulltime worker has the time to untangle this "crossword puzzle from hell"! Although I have worked to turn them into a simpler step-by-step here, they are still far too complex for most Iowans to understand. We need "plain English courts" that prioritize justice instead of punishing innocent people for not being able to navigate an overly-complex system. 

Those who don't know what I'm referring to will not understand most of this, but those who have dealt with our courts or have glanced at the rules and turned away disgusted know exactly what I'm talking about. 

My administration will:

• convert Iowa’s procedural rules into step-by-step public guides written in plain English,
• simplify self-filing resources,
• reduce unnecessary procedural barriers,
• and make court navigation easier for working families, seniors, and low-income Iowans.

Justice should depend on facts and fairness — not whether someone can afford thousands of dollars in legal fees.

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2. Create a Public Iowa Supreme Court Database

If you look for at the Iowa Judiciary's online database of Supreme Court opinions, you will likely notice two major defects:

1. They are not organized at all. You can blindly click into PDFs that provide no meaningful summaries. 

2. They only go back to 2006. Iowa's court system goes back much further than this. 

My administration will hire a commission to:

• organize Iowa Supreme Court rulings by topic (civil law, criminal law, business law, environmental, family, property, etc.)
• provide plain-language summaries of major rulings, with citations, that can be copied and pasted into legal filings, and cited in court. 
• and create a searchable public database so ordinary citizens can better understand how Iowa law actually works.
• create a self-help section on how to overturn unjust standing rulings. Although this can be a difficult process, Iowans should know how to do it instead of just feeling hopeless and like the whole system is corrupt.

Whether the issue is civil rights, property disputes, employment law, contracts, or constitutional protections, Iowans deserve accessible legal information.

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3. Expand Public Legal Self-Help Resources

The State of Iowa should help citizens understand their rights before problems spiral into legal crises.

We will:

• expand public legal education resources,
• modernize self-help legal websites,
• create easier-to-understand public forms,
• and improve access to legal guidance for low-income citizens and seniors.

This will reduce burden on Iowa Legal Aid and the few other public, limited resources we have across the state. 

My administration has plenty of job opportunities for lawyers! We're not killing the industry — we're curing it!

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II. RETURN LAW TO THE PEOPLE

Most students graduate high school without understanding:

• the difference between civil and criminal law,
• how contracts work,
• what their constitutional rights are,
• how to document misconduct,
• or how to navigate even the most basic legal processes.

That needs to change.

1. Practical Law Education

In partnership with Iowa schools and lawyers from across the state, my administration will develop a new curriculum to support practical legal education focused on:

• civil and criminal law basics,
• constitutional rights,
• fraud prevention,
• consumer protections,
• contracts and legal documents,
• and how to respond when rights may be violated.

Students should leave school knowing how to protect themselves and others — without fear or confusion. You can see more about law classes in high schools in my education plan. 

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2. Community-Based Legal Education

Attorneys and legal professionals should spend more time serving communities directly — not only working behind desks.

My administration will encourage:

• improved access to law libraries (with law librarians) across the state. 
• public legal workshops,
• fraud prevention education,
• community legal clinics for numerous categories of law
• and practical law instruction that helps ordinary citizens better understand their rights and responsibilities.

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III. GOVERNMENT ACCOUNTABILITY

A government of laws must remain accountable to the people.

When government officials are alleged to have violated constitutional rights, citizens deserve meaningful access to due process and judicial review.

Too often today, cases are dismissed before evidence is fully examined — leaving many citizens feeling locked out of the justice system entirely.

My administration will work to strengthen:

• due process protections,
• transparency within government,
• jury access,
• and meaningful accountability when constitutional rights violations are alleged.

Justice should not depend on whether the accused is powerful, politically connected, or employed by the government.

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1. Abolish Government Immunity Doctrines

Many immunity doctrines currently shielding government actors from lawsuits were created through judicial interpretation — not direct public vote.

My administration will work with legal scholars and lawmakers to review and reform immunity policies that unnecessarily prevent citizens from receiving their day in court. When citizens are denied justice due to court-invented or Bar Association invented doctrines that the people never voted on, it amounts to extrinsic fraud. 

A constitutional republic should not place government officials above accountability under the law. You can read quotes from about any of the Founding Fathers to know that government officials were never meant to be above the law. 

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2. Strengthen Civil Rights Enforcement

Iowa should be a national leader in civil rights protections and constitutional accountability.

My administration will work to:

• strengthen enforcement of the Iowa Civil Rights Act,
• strengthen our broken Iowa Civil Rights Commission (more information on this coming soon)

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IV. ANTI-CORRUPTION & PUBLIC INTEGRITY

Public trust in government has declined across the country. Iowa should lead by example through transparency, oversight, and accountability.

Strengthen Government Oversight

My administration will support reforms that:

• improve public transparency,
• strengthen watchdog protections,
• expand anti-corruption oversight,
• and ensure independent review of government misconduct allegations.

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Track Down and Fine Scammers

Scammers increasingly target seniors and working families through deceptive calls, online fraud, and impersonation schemes.

My administration will deploy a cybersecurity force to track down IP address and fine scammers. Out-of-state scammers who mask their phone numbers and enter our state electronically can be fined under long-arm statutes. Out-of-state scammers are going to be afraid to call 515 or 631 area codes!