Iowa State AG Says She’s Taking California to Supreme Court Over Paramount

Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird announced plans Tuesday to take California’s Rob Bonta to the Supreme Court over the state’s Paramount lawsuit. Bird published an op-ed in Daily Wire sharing why she plans to bring California directly to the Supreme Court over filing a brief in the state.

In the article, Bird argued that Paramount’s acquisition of Warner Bros. would help the economy rather than hurt it, stating that “twelve states have overridden that judgment for the entire country, and Iowans never got a vote.”

“California is once again trying to be the country’s regulator. And once again California is defying common sense to raise costs around the country. That makes this a dispute between states, and the Constitution says those can only be heard in the U.S. Supreme Court,” Bird wrote. “Iowa cannot sue California in a district court, because Congress said so. Intervening in California’s chosen forum raises the same problem — at least until the Supreme Court tells us whether it agrees with Congress that it is the only court that can hear this case. Without that ruling, we would be walking into a case filed by California before a judge with no authority to decide a controversy between states.”

Assuming that Iowa could get oral arguments scheduled between Oct. 2026 and April 2027, a decision wouldn’t be made until late June or early July.

More to come …