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."

KEYSTONE BACK TO COURT: Nebraska landowners file new lawsuits to block pipeline

Landowners in two Nebraska counties opposed to the controversial Keystone XL pipeline have filed lawsuits challenging the right of the project’s developer, TransCanada from taking their land using eminent domain. 

Holt County Nebraska

This is a new a separate action taken in the courts in the wake of the Nebraska Supreme Court’s review of state law which left unanswered the question of whether the state had improperly given the authority to choose the pipelines route to then Governor Dave Heineman.

The lawsuits, filed in Hold and York Counties, cover much of the same ground covered in the case of Thompsen V. Heineman dismissed last week. The landowners claim LB1161, the law passed by the Nebraska State Legislature is in conflict with the state’s Constitution.  As a result the lawsuits claim “TransCanada is without eminent domain authority or an approved pipeline route across Nebraska because … the Governor’s actions are TransCanada’s sole basis for claiming an approved route or power of eminent domain.” 

In both the Holt and York County cases a total of seven landowners filed the lawsuits. They claim, in nearly identically related briefs, their property is along the pipeline route. Four of the seven have already received written notice from TransCanada that they intend to proceed with condemnation proceedings against their land to advance the pipeline project.

In the matching legal briefs the landowners who have been served notice state they have declined and refused to “declines and refuses to voluntarily convey ownership rights” to TransCanada.

York County Nebraska

No date has been set yet for follow up hearings in either county.

President Obama and Secretary of State Kerry have yet to state whether the United States government will object to the Canadian-based project from crossing the northern border.

BOLD Nebraska, leading the state’s opposition to the project announced the filing on its website late Friday, adding “it is only the President who can provide peace of mind to farmers and ranchers along the route. Our fight will continue even if the President rejects the pipeline.”

Representatives of TransCanada and the State of Nebraska were not available for comment at this writing.