Apparently, Iowa's politicians intend to enrich the tenure experience by annual [gladiatorial games](http://academeblog.org/2015/04/21/culling-the-iowa-faculty/) at state schools, regardless of tenure:

1. those being evaluated below some threshold shall be terminated, and
2. after (1), the 5 remaining lowest scoring professors will be put to a public student vote, and the one with the least student support shall be terminated.

The source looks legit - blog of the AAUP. I'm not sure if this is enacted, or proposed (I think proposed). I'm also not entirely sure how to link this to an answerable question fit for Academia.SE, but maybe: 

* Is this a joke I didn't get, or is it true?
* Is it part of a broader wave?
* Does this contradict any case law, or is being fought already somehow; or will professors just have to live with it?

If this is true, and stands in Iowa, to be worried for the US at large one just has to look at how quality of life legislation spread like a wild fire once enacted in one place.