State v. Robinson

I respectfully dissent.

The majority has reached its result by invading the domain of the legislature which, under our structure of government, is given the sole responsibility to create the law. In so doing, it has violated the separation of powers doctrine and concomitantly inverted our cardinal rule of statutory construction. See State v. Wagner, 596 N.W.2d 83, 89 (Iowa 1999). That rule directs us to look first to the words of the statute to determine if its meaning is ambiguous. Iowa Comprehensive Petroleum Underground Storage Tank Fund Bd. v. Mobil Oil Corp., 606 N.W.2d 359, 363 (Iowa…