2008 Woodie Awards
UNL senior wins suit against Nebraska
Alissa Skelton
Issue date: 9/5/08 Section: News
LINCOLN, Neb. (UWIRE) - A district judge ruled last month in favor of a UNL student seeking to amend the language in the proposed race and gender affirmative action initiative, which will put the public to vote on a possible decision to end affirmative action.
Jeff Hall, a senior learning and teaching education major and Daily Nebraskan opinion columnist, filed the lawsuit against Attorney General Jon Bruning and Secretary of State John Gale in Lancaster County District Court on July 25.
The ballot briefing has a 100-word limit, and Bruning said he "did not have sufficient number of words to address the issue," court records stated.
Nineteen words were omitted from the statute, and 11 were added, resulting in a net loss of eight words, according to court records.
Hall said the initiative is not in the best interest of Nebraskans. He thinks Nebraskans signed the petition because they were confused by the language.
"While language proposed by the Attorney General is not the most specific statement of what is occurring, it is not an inaccurate, unfair or insufficient statement," the court records said.
Hall said the initiative is misleading to voters because it didn't state that equal opportunity programs and scholarships for minorities and women would be eliminated.
"I don't think they have done enough to clarify what the initiative actually does," Hall said. "I am not happy with the language, but I am glad that it is legally knowledgeable that it is misleading."
Marc Schniederjans of the Nebraska Civil Rights Initiative, the group behind the proposed affirmative action ban, could not be reached for comment.
"Our role is to give the fairest representation to the voters," said Leah Bucco-White, the attorney general's spokeswoman.
The NCRI gathered 136,589 valid signatures to get the proposed ban on the November 2008 ballot. To get the initiative on the ballot, 113,000 signatures were required.
Nebraska and Colorado are the only two states this election season asking ballot questions on whether to end affirmative action practices.
Other states pushing to end affirmative action, including Arizona, Missouri and Oklahoma, did not receive sufficient signatures to make it onto their ballots.
"I hope this case draws attention to the pattern of deception that the people behind this initiative really engage in," Hall said.
If the initiative was passed, race and gender scholarships would be cut. At UNL, potentially 300 students could lose their scholarships.
"It is going to have a lot of negative consequences if it is passed," Hall said. "The initiative will … make the university less able to recruit in the 21st century."
Jeff Hall, a senior learning and teaching education major and Daily Nebraskan opinion columnist, filed the lawsuit against Attorney General Jon Bruning and Secretary of State John Gale in Lancaster County District Court on July 25.
The ballot briefing has a 100-word limit, and Bruning said he "did not have sufficient number of words to address the issue," court records stated.
Nineteen words were omitted from the statute, and 11 were added, resulting in a net loss of eight words, according to court records.
Hall said the initiative is not in the best interest of Nebraskans. He thinks Nebraskans signed the petition because they were confused by the language.
"While language proposed by the Attorney General is not the most specific statement of what is occurring, it is not an inaccurate, unfair or insufficient statement," the court records said.
Hall said the initiative is misleading to voters because it didn't state that equal opportunity programs and scholarships for minorities and women would be eliminated.
"I don't think they have done enough to clarify what the initiative actually does," Hall said. "I am not happy with the language, but I am glad that it is legally knowledgeable that it is misleading."
Marc Schniederjans of the Nebraska Civil Rights Initiative, the group behind the proposed affirmative action ban, could not be reached for comment.
"Our role is to give the fairest representation to the voters," said Leah Bucco-White, the attorney general's spokeswoman.
The NCRI gathered 136,589 valid signatures to get the proposed ban on the November 2008 ballot. To get the initiative on the ballot, 113,000 signatures were required.
Nebraska and Colorado are the only two states this election season asking ballot questions on whether to end affirmative action practices.
Other states pushing to end affirmative action, including Arizona, Missouri and Oklahoma, did not receive sufficient signatures to make it onto their ballots.
"I hope this case draws attention to the pattern of deception that the people behind this initiative really engage in," Hall said.
If the initiative was passed, race and gender scholarships would be cut. At UNL, potentially 300 students could lose their scholarships.
"It is going to have a lot of negative consequences if it is passed," Hall said. "The initiative will … make the university less able to recruit in the 21st century."
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