Judge John Gerrard has served impressively on the Nebraska Supreme Court. He deserves U.S. Senate confirmation to serve as the state's next federal judge.
Gerrard, who has authored more than 450 opinions for the state's high court, is widely respected in Nebraska's legal community for his intellect and level-headedness.
He has the strong endorsement of both of Nebraska's U.S. senators, Republican Mike Johanns and Democrat Ben Nelson. Gerrard was in private practice in Norfolk when Nelson, then governor, appointed Gerrard to the high court bench in 1995.
The full Senate is expected to confirm Gerrard easily, given the strength of his reputation and the breadth of his support in the Nebraska legal community.
Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., was the one lawmaker on the Senate Judiciary Committee to vote against Gerrard's nomination. Sessions cited the Nebraska Supreme Court's action in May 2007, when it put the execution of Carey Dean Moore by electric chair on hold. Gerrard wrote the majority opinion.
The record shows, however, that Gerrard is by no means an opponent of the death penalty per se. Rather, the 2007 ruling in the Moore case involved interpretation of proper court procedures.
At the time, Nebraska was the only state still using electrocution as its sole method of execution. The Supreme Court majority said it could not permit Moore to be executed when the judges knew they would be considering the constitutionality of the electric chair in a separate case later that year.
In February 2008, by a 6-1 vote, the court did rule that the electric chair was cruel and unusual punishment and therefore unconstitutional. The Legislature subsequently approved the use of lethal injection. Moore remains on death row.
Nebraska was not unique in that situation. The North Carolina Supreme Court, for example, stopped several executions on its own in 2006 in order to consider a legal challenge to lethal injection.
Voters have retained Gerrard in office three times, and he has received top ratings by the Nebraska State Bar Association in its judicial evaluations. He has been honored for promoting racial and ethnic fairness in the courts.
Gerrard would make a solid choice to succeed retiring U.S. District Judge Richard Kopf.
The Senate needs to end the backlog on federal judicial appointments and approve Gerrard's nomination so he can take his position in a timely fashion.
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