Hunter
10/25/25
A Johnson County district judge has ordered the State of Iowa to stop removing items from the Iowa City branch of the State Historical Society, and ruled that a lawsuit brought by a group of concerned historians can continue.
The Gazette reports 6th Judicial District Judge Kevin McKeever ruled, “Defendants are hereby ordered not to remove any further documents, artifacts or other related materials from the Iowa City Research Facility until further order of the court.” He cited Iowa Code that requires the state to maintain research centers in Des Moines and Iowa City.
McKeever also ruled that the plaintiffs, composed of 17 historians, archivists, professors, donors, and other community members who filed the suit in September “have shown a likelihood of “irreparable harm absent the issuance of an injunction.”
The suit stemmed from a press release from the State Historical Society of Iowa in June announcing the closing of the Iowa City research facility. According to the plaintiffs, the state cited nearly $900,000 in deferred maintenance at the Iowa City location, and said that the $5 million in funding for shelving in the Des Moines location could be used to store the Iowa City collection. The suit claims the funding was actually to replace faulty shelving for existing archives.
The state had been using prisoners to remove the archives, reportedly without taking inventory, without documentation, using unmarked vehicles and handling them without the care required for historic items.