LINCOLN — Former State Sen. Ernie Chambers is gone from the Nebraska Legislature, but he can still get bills killed.
He proved that by stepping in at the last minute on a measure that would have made it a crime to bring banned items into a jail.
Legislative Bill 415 had passed the Legislature with ease and made it all the way to the governor's desk before Chambers got involved.
He hand-delivered a letter to the Governor's Office that questioned the constitutionality of the bill and threatened a possible legal challenge.
Because of his intervention, the bill's sponsor took the extremely unusual step of asking to have his measure vetoed.
Gov. Dave Heineman obliged, issuing his first veto of the session earlier this week.
"In the spirit of cooperation, I will respect the desire of the Legislature to further review this issue, though I remain supportive of the intent of LB 415," the governor wrote in his veto message.
The bill would have allowed jail officials to determine what items to ban from their institutions.
Anyone who provided a jail inmate with one of the banned items could be charged with a misdemeanor, carrying a maximum penalty of one year in jail or a $1,000 fine.
Current law prohibits visitors, jail employees and inmates from bringing in illegal drugs or items that could be used in an escape.
Chambers said the bill unconstitutionally delegated the Legislature's power to determine what is a crime and what is not.
The bill would have set no limits on what could be banned, meaning jailers could prohibit "everything from soup to nuts, from Stetson hats to a stick of chewing gum," Chambers said.
In addition, what constitutes a crime could vary from day to day, based on actions by jail officials, he said.
"One day a 'prohibited article' is an element of a crime, the next day it may not be, and vice versa," Chambers said.
Sen. Norm Wallman of Cortland introduced the measure after the Gage County Jail's director raised concerns about inmates sneaking items into jail.
Wallman said he asked for the veto so he could repair the legal concerns about the bill. He hopes to bring it back as an amendment to some other measure.
"I didn't want to embarrass the Legislature," Wallman said. "The governor did us all a favor."
Sen. Brad Ashford of Omaha, the Judiciary Committee chairman, said the current situation makes it difficult for jails to regulate contraband.
He said the committee thought that requiring signs listing banned items would take care of legal concerns with the bill.
Contact the writer:
402-473-9583, martha.stoddard@owh.com
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