The Nebraska Supreme Court has ruled that the state's term limits law is legit. I'm not surprised at the ruling. The argument put forth by Ernie Chambers, Dennis Byars and Marian Price -- that term limits interfered with their First Amendment rights -- seemed awfully weak to me.
The Court's ruling proves that just because a law is stupid, doesn't mean it's unconstitutional.
I wonder what would happen if, say, Ernie Chambers' district staged a write-in campaign, and Chambers managed to win the election that way. Without using an argument that boils down to "it's the law", for what reasons should the voters not be allowed to send their chosen man to the Unicameral?
Hat tip: foxspit
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The initiative and referendum process is a great thing for Nebraska voters. It gives them control over things that are important to them and term limits is the result of something voters decided was important enough to put to vote.
I am against term limits but I support the voters’ right to put the issue out there for everyone to decide.
I also hate to see the process hijacked by out-of-state interests who will pay signature gatherers to promote their cause, but I don’t know how to stop that from happening.
I can’t think of a scenario where voters should not be allowed to send their candidate to the Unicameral. If Chambers won by write-in, I think he should be allowed to serve. It’s the will of the voters.
I also believe that the Unicameral will be a lesser place without Chambers there to say what needs to be said. I don’t always agree with him, but I respect him for saying what needed to be said.
I think we voted, as voters, for temr limits like 3 times. I was in favor then, and am not sure how i feel today. I’d like there to be term limits across the country for offices like Congress and Senate to keep an even playing field between states. I like that our legislature had big turnover. More stuff seemed to have gotten done, even with the loss of “institutional knowledge.”
I am still not sure if I like term limits. I am going to greatly miss Ernie but I have no doubt that he will figure out a way to get back if he wants to he is smart enough to out smart the term limits if he so desires.
We have always had term limits. It is called the ballot box.
One way to get the out of state interests away from the initiative process is not allowing paid signature gatherers.
I don’t like term limits either. They end up just giving lobbyists more power than they already do because of their relative advantage in terms of institutional memory. I’m sure Walt Radcliffe is doing quite well these days.
Plus I agree with those above who say that people should be able to vote for whoever they want if they think that person can best represent them
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