[UPDATED] (Radio Iowa) – The Iowa Supreme Court has overturned a lower court ruling awarding damages to the state Workers’ Compensation Commissioner former Governor Terry Branstad tried to fire. In 2019, a district court jury awarded Christopher Godfrey one-and-a-half million dollars. Godfrey argued he was pressured to resign and his pay was cut
because he is gay. Roxanne Conlin, Godfrey’s attorney, says the ruling is disappointing and surprising. “It is just not the role of the Iowa Supreme Court to reverse the findings of fact of a jury,” Conlin says.

The Supreme Court’s ruling states there is no evidence to prove Branstad is “anti-gay” or knew Godfrey was gay as he was seeking to replace him as workers’ compensation commissioner. Godfrey also alleged he was fired because of unfounded complaints from business groups about his rulings on workers’ compensation cases. The Supreme Court ruling states that was the perception, whether correct or not, and Branstad was entitled to take that perception into consideration.

Justice Christopher McDonald wrote that although Godfrey was widely known as openly gay, there is no proof Branstad was aware of Godfrey’s sexual orientation before asking him to resign and slashing his salary when Godfrey refused. The ruling overturned a $1.15-million dollar 2019 verdict in which Polk County jurors found that Branstad and his former legal counsel violated the Iowa Civil Rights Act. Jurors had awarded Godfrey, a Democrat who is now an official with the U.S. Department of Labor, $1.5 million in damages for emotional distress.

Branstad, a Republican who later served as U.S. ambassador to China, has argued that he sought Godfrey’s resignation because powerful business interests disagreed with rulings by Godfrey and his staff awarding benefits to injured workers. He has claimed that he acted legally in 2011 by reducing Godfrey’s salary by $40,000, to the lowest amount allowed by the Legislature for the position.