ELR Citation: 52 ELR 20076
No(s). 21-0652 (Iowa Jun 30, 2022)

The Iowa Supreme Court, 4-3, affirmed a summary judgment order dismissing a landowner's nuisance, trespass, and drainage claims against a neighboring confined animal feeding operation (CAFO). The neighboring CAFO moved for summary judgment based on the statutory immunity enacted in Iowa's "right-to-farm" legislation. The landowner argued the immunity provision as applied to him was unconstitutional under the state's inalienable rights clause. A lower court determined that the provision was constitutional as applied to the landowner under the three-part test set forth in Gacke v. Pork Xtra, L.L.C. because he had benefited from the statutory nuisance immunity when he operated his own CAFO, and granted summary judgment for the neighboring CAFO. The high court concluded that Gacke was wrongly decided in that it failed to apply rational basis review to a challenge to a regulatory statute under the inalienable rights clause, and overruled its three-part test. It applied rational basis review to the landowner's challenge, concluded he failed to preserve error on his takings claim and failed to generate a question of fact precluding summary judgment on statutory nuisance immunity or causation for his trespass and drainage claims, and affirmed summary judgment for the neighboring CAFO.