Criminal side first

Repeal is the expensive lever. A hearing within fourteen days is the cheap one.

The 2026 session is over. It adjourned sine die on May 3. The next regular session is the first window for a bill. Full repeal of chapters 236 and 664A will not get a subcommittee. House File 523, effective July 1, 2026, moved emergency orders the other way. The Iowa Coalition Against Domestic Violence lobbies this subject from the other direction.

The bill that can be drafted, priced, and explained in one hearing has six sections. They are listed from cheapest to most expensive. Each one is a safeguard a court has already named. None of them tells a protected person to go without a final order after a real hearing.

1. Say on the face of a criminal order that the appeal survives expiry. Cyran said a presumption of collateral consequences is a legislative task. One sentence: dismissal or expiry does not moot review, and firearm, custody, and licensing consequences are legal consequences. This removes zero protection. It supplies the rule the Iowa courts have declined to supply: O'Brien v. Young and Flores v. Aragon Nunez (Dec. 17, 2025), McGuire (2024), Henson (2022), and R.M. v. D.S. (2023) dismiss expired-order appeals as moot and presume no collateral consequences; T.F. v. C.G. (2025) is the lone exception and called the pattern "a recurring problem." Cost: drafting time.
2. Require written findings before a five-year order. The Iowa Supreme Court has now held, unanimously, that the statute requires none: State v. Hall (May 22, 2026) says the only condition precedent to a five-year § 664A.5 order is the conviction, deferred judgment, or plea, that the court "is not required to consider additional proof, make additional findings, or offer additional explanations," and that notice plus the sentencing hearing is all the process due (adopting Hunter and Lynch). That ends the litigation route. Only the Legislature can add a findings requirement, which is the strongest argument for this section. Require a finding that contact remains a threat, said on the record. Wiederien (2006) called a standardless extension under the predecessor statute a due-process problem. Cost: one subsection.
3. Give the criminal order a hearing. On written request, the court holds an evidentiary hearing within fourteen days. The State proves continued necessity by a preponderance. That is State v. Fernando A. from Connecticut, and it is the English fourteen-day return date. Until that hearing, a short emergency order can stand. After it, the order continues only on evidence. This is the criminal-side change. It is the point of the campaign.
4. Put a fixed end on the pretrial order. Chapter 236 already sets the civil hearing at 5 to 15 days, and the after-hours emergency order dies in 72 hours. Chapter 664A at initial appearance lasts the life of the case. Cap the pretrial criminal order at thirty days unless the hearing in item 3 extends it. DK v Crowley struck an interim barring order for lack of a short fixed period. R v R set aside a without-notice order whose first contested hearing was three months out.
5. Candor, and a fee shift when candor fails. The ex parte petition must state specific facts of imminent harm and must recite that only the applicant's evidence was heard and that no finding of fact has been made. That recital is the English practice guidance of January 18, 2017. A material omission is grounds to dissolve the temporary order and to assess the respondent's reasonable fees. Runyan shows Iowa currently taxes the winning respondent's appeal the wrong way. Vileta shows perjury is available and is not a system. Doehr treated the missing bond and the useless later lawsuit as part of the violation.
6. Publish the counts. Once a year the Judicial Branch reports orders entered and denied, the ex parte share, reversals, contempts, and — with the Department of Public Safety — police-reported repeat assault within twelve months for people with a temporary order, a final order, and no order. If the tables are empty, the deprivation is still running on faith. The report is the measurement this site says does not exist.

What this bill leaves in place

A final civil order after a hearing, with the assault predicate Runyan, Owens, and Ewoldt already enforce. A criminal order after conviction, with reasons stated. Emergency relief for hours or days when the petition alleges specific imminent harm. Arrest for a violation that is then proved as willful. Those are the pieces national studies associate with less later physical violence. The campaign keeps them.

What full repeal would throw away

Repealing both chapters deletes the permanent order along with the ex parte order. The JAMA split says those are different policies. Repeal also asks legislators who just expanded emergency orders to abolish the framework victim advocates are paid to defend. File repeal as a statement if you want it on paper. Whip the six sections above if you want a change.

Who can carry it

A bill reaches the Iowa Legislature only when a Representative or Senator agrees to sponsor it — to introduce the draft, carry it through subcommittee, and argue for it on the floor. That is the ask on this site. Any member can sponsor. Judiciary is a natural first ask because 664A and 236 procedure bills typically land there. See the public roster on who can introduce this bill. Find your own members at the Legislature’s legislator finder. Hand them the sponsor ask kit or the short message on the take-action page; ask them to sponsor the six sections above, cheapest first — not repeal.

Registration of people who lobby the Legislature is public on the Legislature’s lobbyist search. If you later retain help, run a written conflict check first and ask for a one-page memo of the section they will actually file before you pay a session retainer. Someone who promises repeal “right away” is selling a bill the calendar already closed. Do not hire a victim-services coalition to repeal or narrow its own statute; the Iowa Coalition Against Domestic Violence lobbies this subject from the other direction.

Who can introduce this bill Ask a legislator to sponsor Sponsor ask kit Draft bill text