Odds Good For 2nd Female Justice on Nebraska Supreme Court

There is a three-out-of-four chance the next addition to the Nebraska Supreme Court will be a woman. 

 That’s notable because in the courts 160 year history there has been only one female justice on the state’s highest court.

Four applicants put their names before the state’s Judicial Nominating Commission to replace retiring Justice Kenneth Stephan. The commission meets July 1 to consider the applicants qualifications before making a recommendation to Governor Pete Ricketts.

The applicants are:

• Gary Young, a specialist in labor law, clerked at the state Supreme Court before joining the firm of Keating O’Gara.
•  Judge Riko Bishop was appointed to the Nebraska Court of Appeals in 2013. She got her law degree as a second career following work as a public school English teacher.
• Amie Martinez currently serves as president of the Nebraska Bar Association. She is a private practice attorney listing criminal defense and appellate law among her practice areas.
• Judge Stephanie Stacy was appointed to serve as a District Court judge by Governor Dave Heineman in 2011 after 18 years in private practice of law. Her ruling which block progress on the Keystone XL pipeline attracted international attention.

Honorable Lindsey Miller-Lerman

Supreme Court openings are rare. In ten years Governor Heineman only appointed two. 

Justice Lindsey Miller-Lerman remains the first and only woman to serve on the Nebraska Supreme Court. That bit of history occurred in 1998 when she was selected by Governor Ben Nelson. 

At the time of her appointment she downplayed the significance of breaking the all-male hold on the high court. The World-Herald reported Justice Miller-Lerman, said of her appointment: "I've approached the application process on the basis of merit, and being female is merely another fact in my profile."

Drug Courts: Five things you didn’t know

I'd heard about them but knew nothing about them.

The  past couple of weeks I talked to the judges and staff who run Drug Courts and other problem solving courts in Nebraska.  The people who have been through them have a lot to say too.  They’re promoted as good for the participants, good for the community, and a bargain.  The numbers in studies done both nationally and in Nebraska seem to back that up.

They get a HUGE turnout when they hold Drug Court Graduations. (Photo: Lancaster Co. Court)

Here are five surprising things I learned about them:

1. The people who volunteer to take part start out going back to court every week to report back to the judge.  It’s a weird combination of being talked to by a parent, a psychologist, and a cop who happens to be wearing a judge’s robe.   Every participant gets called up for a chat… in public, so there are no secrets. 
   
2. Only 5% of the people who graduate from a drug court program commit another crime within a year later.  Compare that to 32% who re-offended after being released from a state prison.
3. Even the people who wash out of the program are way less likely to commit a crime after they’ve been through part of the program.  Only about 7 out of one hundred reoffend.
4. Keeping someone in drug court is way cheaper than prison or county jail.  Nebraska spends about $70 dollars a day on every prison inmate.  It costs about $45 dollars a day to house and feed someone in a county jail.  Someone in the Drug Court program costs between $20 to $40 a day.  Individual drug courts around the state set up their own budgets.
5. Participants may get a drug test two or three times a day.  That can be at home, or work, or wherever one of the staff ask them to fill up the cup.  About the worse thing a participant can do is try to cheat a drug test.

Click here to check out the story I filed this morning on NET News: