LINCOLN — The arguments against LB 574 haven’t changed much since the controversial bill blew up last year’s legislative session.
“There is a right way and a wrong way to pass legislation in Nebraska and in many other states because there is a single subject rule. We are here because this particular bill was passed the wrong way,” said Matt Seal, Senior Staff attorney for the ACLU’s State Supreme Court Initiative.
Segal, along with the ACLU of Nebraska, were representing Planned Parenthood in its bid to overturn the controversial Let Them Grow Act.
They argue that amending a 12 week abortion ban into the bill on gender affirming care after that ban was already voted down violates the State Constitution’s single subject rule.
The ban on abortions went into effect the moment the bill was signed, and advocates say it has already caused significant challenges.
“The impacts of LB574 are being felt in our state, we are seeing more people than previous having to leave the state to access abortion care,” said Andi Curry Grub, with Planned Parenthood Advocates of Nebraska.
Questions from the justices focused mostly on the case law behind the arguments from the ACLU and Solicitor General Eric Hamilton.
Hamilton received some push back from Chief Justice Mike Heavican when he suggested that the court should not decide the single-subject case, saying the issue should be handled legislatively and not judiciously.
But Heavican pointed to the Supreme Court’s more than 150 year history of hearing cases on the rule and Segal said it would be unheard of for the justices to remove themselves from the case.
“The supreme curt of Nebraska started deciding single subject rule cases in the 1800s. If it were to say, in this case, that its actually a non-justiciable or what they call a political questions, that would make it the first Supreme Court in the history of the United States ever to say that,” said Segal.
