Nebraska

U.S. District Judge Joseph Bataillon has struck down Nebraska's constitutional ban on same-sex marriage as well as the state's ban on adoption by same-sex couples, the Lincoln Journal Star's Lori Pilger reports. The judge also granted a preliminary injunction in favor of the plaintiffs.

"For the majority of married couples, those without children in the home, marriage is a legal and emotional commitment to the welfare of their partner," Bataillon opined. "The state clearly has the right to encourage couples to marry and provide support for one another. However, those laws must be enforced equally and without respect to gender." The opinion can be read here: http://journalstar.com/links/online-exclusives/read-bataillon-s-order/pd...

Bataillon already struck down the ban before in 2005, but the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit overturned his ruling. Bataillion's decision notes that the Eighth Circuit rejected the argument in the prior case that the Nebraska constitutional amendment violated the right of gay and lesbian Nebraskans to access the political process; the appeals court also found that strict scrutiny should not apply to gays and lesbians.

This time, Bataillon found that heightened scrutiny should apply to the ban because the "challenged amendment 'proceeds along suspect lines,' as either gender-based or gender-stereotype-based discrimination."

The controversy of the Keystone XL oil pipeline project is now in the hands of President Barack Obama after a Nebraska Supreme Court ruling on Friday, which threw out a legal challenge to the pipeline, the Associated Press' Josh Lederman reports. The Congressional Republicans also have kicked the project over to the president with the House having passed and the Senate close to passing legislation to authorize construction of the pipeline that would carry more than 800,000 barrels of crude oil a day from Canada to Gulf Coast refineries. However, Lederman reports "Obama has said he will only allow the pipeline if it won't lead to increased carbon dioxide emissions. He also is skeptical of claims by supporters that the pipeline will create jobs or lessen U.S. dependence on foreign oil."

The Nebraska Supreme Court heard oral arguments today over a constitutional challenge to the Keystone XL pipeline, the Journal Star reports.

The issues in the case include:

* whether a 2012 statute giving the governor authority to approve the route can be upheld; 

* whether three landowners have standing to challenge the law because their properties are near or would have been near the path of the pipeline route;

* whether the pipeline is a common carrier that only the state legislature and the Nebraska Public Service Commission are allowed to regulate and whether the legislation violated the state constitution "by allowing TransCanada, the company developing the Keystone XL pipeline, to bypass the state’s Public Service Commission and have its route reviewed by the Nebraska Department of Environmental Quality and approved by Gov. Dave Heineman," the Journal Star also reports.