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I don't know what Iowa has been doing, but they seem... problematic based on this.

• schoen 6y ago
  Apart from the "spicy" case identified elsewhere in the thread https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23760678 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23760678, it looks like all of this is litigation against the neighboring states about boundary determinations, all of which Iowa lost. It looks like the reason Iowa got involved in so much boundary litigation is that its western boundary is determined by the Missouri River (and its tributary, the Big Sioux River), while its eastern boundary is determined by the Mississippi River. Both of these rivers move around quite a bit and also are big rivers with complex courses that are hard to survey, especially with 1800s technology. So it seems like the Iowa government felt that the surveyors and Special Masters appointed to interpret the boundary had gotten it wrong with respect to the river courses, and wanted to challenge those determinations repeatedly, but never successfully.
  • Shared404 6y ago
    That makes quite a lot of sense. Thank you for the explanation, I tried reading one or two of the cases and got put off by legalese.