District court, Judicial District 2

Gregg Rosenbladt

Assistant Chief Judge · District 2A

About

Appointed to this post in 2012¹
Next on the ballot: November 2032, in District 2A²

Judge Rosenbladt was appointed as a District Associate Judge in August 2008, and as a District Judge in August 2012. He earned his AA degree from Waldorf College in Forest City, Iowa in 1982, his BA degree from Wartburg College in Waverly, Iowa in 1984, and his law degree from…

Full biography on iowacourts.gov

Retention votes

Election	Yes	No	Kept by
November 3, 2026	34,032	12,362	73.4% yes

What lawyers said

Before each retention vote, the Iowa State Bar Association asks lawyers who’ve appeared before the judge to rate them from 1 (very poor) to 5 (excellent), and whether the judge should be kept.³

93.7% of 63 responding lawyers said to keep the judge (2026).

Question	2026
Knowledge and use of the law	4.4
Sees the facts of a case clearly	4.4
On time for court	4.5
Listens to arguments and testimony	4.6
Runs the courtroom well	4.6
Temperament and manner	4.6
Clear, well-written decisions	4.3
Rules promptly	4.4
Uses technology to improve the courts	4.2
Avoids needless personal criticism	4.7
Decides on the law and facts, not outside pressure	4.6
Courteous and patient	4.7
Treats people equally	4.7
Fair to people without a lawyer	4.7
Said to keep the judge	93.7%
Lawyers responding	63

Source: Iowa State Bar Association Judicial Performance Review: 2026 (page 34).

Appeals from this judge’s cases

3 appeals on record; 3 reversed or vacated at least in part.⁴

Criminal appeal No. 24-1143
Iowa Supreme Court · January 30, 2026 · Worth County · Decision of Court of Appeals Affirmed in Part and Vacated in Part; District Cour…
AI summary The defendant asked for a new sentencing hearing after a victim impact statement became available, but the district court denied the request. The court of appeals ruled it could not hear the case because the defendant's initial notice of appeal did not specifi…
Criminal appeal No. 24-1166
Iowa Supreme Court · January 30, 2026 · Cerro Gordo County · Decision of Court of Appeals Vacated; District Court Judgment Affirmed
AI summary The defendant challenged her sentence after pleading guilty to theft, arguing that the judge used improper information from a victim's statement and failed to follow sentencing recommendations. The court affirmed the original sentence, finding that the judge a…
Criminal appeal No. 22-1188
Iowa Supreme Court · January 17, 2025 · Wright County · Decision of Court of Appeals Vacated; District Court Order Reversed and Case Rem…
AI summary The defendant challenged a court order that found him competent to stand trial for murder. The Iowa Supreme Court reversed the lower court's decision and sent the case back. This means the criminal proceedings are suspended indefinitely while the defendant con…

Notes

From the Judicial Branch’s biography of the judge. ↩
Expected: retained judges serve 6 years before the next vote (Iowa Code §46.16). A judge who retires or reaches 72 leaves sooner. ↩
Scores from the Iowa State Bar Association Judicial Performance Review, a survey of Iowa lawyers who appeared before the judge. The ISBA publishes it before each retention election; only the numbers are shown here, with a link to the page of its report they’re on. ↩
Most cases are never appealed, and a reversal can turn on a change in the law or a close question, so these counts say little about a judge’s work on their own. Iowa Funnel has Supreme Court opinions since November 2017 and Court of Appeals opinions from November 2026. ↩

Sources: the Iowa Judicial Branch; retention votes from the Iowa Secretary of State and civicAPI; lawyers’ ratings from the Iowa State Bar Association.