This is fantastic news. The Iowa Supreme Court has upheld a lower court ruling that struck down as unconstitutional a law from 1998 that limited marriage to being between one man and one woman. This ruling ensures that there will be total civil marriage equality in the state of Iowa.

Overruled Blog has a great, key passage from the ruling.

Iowa Code section 595.2 is unconstitutional because the County has been unable to identify a constitutionally adequate justification for excluding plaintiffs from the institution of civil marriage. A new distinction based on sexual orientation would be equally suspect and difficult to square with the fundamental principles of equal protection embodied in our constitution.  This record, our independent research, and the appropriate equal protection analysis do not suggest the existence of a justification for such a legislative classification that substantially furthers any governmental objective.  Consequently, the language in Iowa Code section 595.2 limiting civil marriage to a man and a woman must be stricken from the statute, and the remaining statutory language must be interpreted and applied in a manner allowing gay and lesbian people full access to the institution of civil marriage.

I’d bold the whole paragrah because it’s so powerful, but that doesn’t really help things. Basically the Iowa Supreme Court is saying that homophobes and bigots have zero standing to put people in a separate class based on their sexual orientation.