Look straight ahead at the United States District Court for the Southern District of Iowa, an imposing rectangular block of smooth limestone dominated by a grand row of towering columns along its facade.
If you want to understand this town, you have to understand the endless cycle of legal brawls, permitting fights, and development drama that started right here. Des Moines is essentially a city of lawsuits. Every piece of progress, every inch of concrete poured, has been dragged through a courtroom at some point, making this building the true birthplace of our modern skyline.
It has always been this way. Back in 1927, Judge Martin Joseph Wade literally threw his hands up in defeat, announcing to Congress that he was absolutely through trying to clear a monstrous seven year backlog of unresolved cases on his own. It was a level of bureaucratic overwhelming that practically begged for reinforcements, prompting President Calvin Coolidge to temporarily authorize a second judge to bail him out.
The headquarters standing before you was finished in 1929. It is designed in the Classical Revival style, an architectural approach relying on strict symmetry and ancient Greek elements to make citizens feel appropriately small and obedient. Inside, the main courtroom is a masterpiece of intimidation, featuring a recessed coffered ceiling, pink Tennessee marble flooring, and the Latin phrase Justitia Omnibus, or Justice for All, carved above the judge.
But the building's greatest drama was not legal, it was hydrological. During catastrophic flooding, river waters completely drowned the basement and destroyed the mechanical systems. Massive amounts of water had to be pumped out of this stone fortress. It was an engineering nightmare, but crews pulled off a massive restoration, installing new energy efficient systems and saving the landmark in just three months.
Long before the waters rose, the court hosted battles that shaped the nation. In 1966, Judge Roy L. Stephenson presided over the initial trial of Tinker versus Des Moines. Students sued after being suspended for wearing black armbands to protest the Vietnam War. Stephenson convened a non jury trial, meaning he alone heard the evidence, and he ruled against the students to maintain school order. The U.S. Supreme Court famously overturned him three years later.
This court also saw true pioneers. In 1977, Roxanne Barton Conlin was appointed U.S. Attorney, making her the second woman in the country to hold that presidential post. She wrote the nation's first law protecting the privacy of rape victims before stepping down to run for governor. Decades later, in 2012, Stephanie M. Rose became the district's first female judge. She was the youngest Article Three federal judge, meaning a judge appointed for life under the Constitution, in the country, and handled massive economic espionage cases involving stolen agricultural secrets.
And then there is the wonderfully bizarre. In 1991, Stephen Carrie Blumberg was convicted here for executing the largest series of rare book thefts in United States history. He stole over twenty three thousand books worth over five million dollars from universities nationwide.
The relentless legal battles fought inside these walls eventually spilled out, shaping the physical city we see today. We are going to look at the modern consequences of these endless municipal brawls at the massive arena up ahead. It is about a fourteen minute walk to the Iowa Events Center.
