On September 10, the Iowa Supreme Court heard the oral arguments in the case of State v. Belt and issued its opinion on October 2. The Court, in a unanimous opinion authored by Chief Justice Christensen upheld the district court’s judgment, which had removed Scott Belt from the Pottawattamie County Board of Supervisors.

Question: Can a district court remove an elected official  for their intoxication while carrying out an official duty under Iowa Code section 66.1A(6) based on  a single instance of intoxication?

When Scott Belt was in his fourth term as chair of the Board, he arranged for an evening town hall in Carson for November 5, 2025. He chose the venue and the speakers and decided to act as the emcee. The agenda made it clear that “[n]o deliberation or formal action will be taken at this meeting.” About an hour before the event, Belt went to a local bar where surveillance footage shows him ordering a Budweiser and a cocktail. He took the cocktail to go, including the straw, at about 6:14 PM. The mayor of Carson, who was sitting next to Belt, asked him if he had to attend the meeting. Belt replied that it was a meet and greet and that he would be alright.

He wasn’t okay. With about fifty people present and standing behind a lectern bearing the county’s logo under a screen that said “Scott Belt, Board Chair”, Belt led the Pledge of Allegiance before delivering a lengthy introduction to a moment of silence, which came to an end when he dropped the microphone. The attendees asked him to hold the microphone nearer to his mouth and sent text messages asking if he was drunk. The county auditor, who was sitting on the stage, replied simply with “SB drunk.” The chair of the county Republican Party persuaded Belt to leave the stage by putting to him a question concerning the city council election before Belt called fellow supervisor Brian Shea a “jackoff”, threatened to “kick [his] ass,” and, in a recording made in a nearby room, referred to his colleagues as “fuck ups” and “nitwits” before the county’s planning director drove him back to Council Bluffs. A video of Belt’s comments published by a Daily Nonpareil reporter quickly spread, and Belt told the paper that his behavior had been due to his medication, although he did not go into further detail because it was a “HIPAA deal.”

Nine days later, the county attorney filed a petition with the Pottawatomie County District Court to remove Belt from office, claiming that he had been intoxicated at the town hall as well as having attended other events over a period of more than thirteen months, including a national conference in Washington, D.C., at which it was alleged that Belt had taken two double shots of Bailey’s in his coffee before going to the class sessions (together with several other examples). That same day the district court suspended Belt. At the two-day trial in December, Belt not being there on the second day, the district court found clear, satisfactory, and convincing evidence that Belt had been intoxicated at the town hall and rejected the remaining allegations because they fell short of clear convincing, and satisfactory proof, though the court noted that its conclusion “might be different” under a lower evidentiary standard. Ultimately, the court decided that the incident at the town hall alone was sufficient by itself to justify Belt’s removal.

Belt argued on appeal that the State failed to prove his intoxication and that, under State v. Welsh, an 1899 Iowa Supreme Court decision, “[i]ntoxication, when not occurring while in the discharge of an official duty, is not a ground of removal for office.” Because there is no statute requiring supervisors to hold town halls, Belt argued that he was not acting in his official capacity, and that reading the statute otherwise “risks unintended consequences” for officials “who may be approached by the public at any time, in any place, because of the office they hold.” Alternatively, Belt asked for a remand because the district court failed to recognize its discretion, or for reinstatement because his “10 minutes of awkwardness” fell short of the “grave misconduct or…flagrant incompetency” that the Court, in a 1910 decision, State ex rel. Barker v. Meek, required for removal. The State responded that the statute’s text does not require any connection between intoxication and official duties, and that the district court both understood and exercised its discretion.

On all the issues, the Court agreed with the State. By using the definition given in the 1913 decision of the Iowa Supreme Court in State ex rel. Cosson v. Baughn (a person is considered intoxicated “when he is so far under the influence of intoxicating liquors that his passions are visibly excited or his judgment impaired”), the Court found sufficient evidence to show that Belt was intoxicated even though there had been no sobriety test administered. The State was not obliged to rule out the possibility of a medical cause, and Belt never presented any evidence regarding the medication he was taking or as to how it might have affected him.

As to whether Belt was acting in his official capacity, the Court held that the statute was clear. Other reasons which may lead to an official’s dismissal from office, such as “willful misconduct or maladministration in office,” are specifically linked to the duties of the office, whereas intoxication is not. The Court stated that Welsh came before intoxication was included as a ground for removal and therefore did not attempt to imply limitations which the legislature had left out, citing the safeguards in chapter 66 that prevent it from being used as “a political weapon,” such as the restrictions on who may file, the bond requirements, and the reimbursement fees. Instead, whether or not an official is acting in an official capacity is an equitable issue.

The Court also rejected Belt’s other arguments. The district court described the equity issue as “the closest decision in this case” and acknowledged its discretion before exercising it. The Court pointed out that the “grave misconduct” standard applies to grounds for removal, based on the word “willful”, a key point that has been established since Meek (1910) and State v. Roth (1913) and continued in State v. Watkins, a 2018 decision by the Iowa Supreme Court concerning grounds other than intoxication. Moreover, on its de novo review, the Court was not convinced by Belt’s description of the incident as lasting “only 10 minutes”: “Belt downplays the situation. He made a mockery of the town hall, and that ‘10 minutes of awkwardness’ extended well beyond that time frame when the story became news.”

Although the other allegations were unproven, the Court found unrebutted testimony that the town hall “was not an isolated event,” including the Bailey’s breakfast at a conference that county taxpayers “were presumably paying him to attend.” The Court acknowledged that removal “is heroic in nature and relatively drastic,” but that this record met the appropriate standard.

The Court did not address Belt’s request for attorney fees on the dismissed allegations. He conceded in his reply brief that he failed to preserve error, so the Court considered it waived.

Belt’s term would have expired on December 31, 2026, and he had already lost his party’s June primary. Both the voters and the Court reached the same conclusion, only on different schedules.

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