Stephanie Stacy

Stephanie Stacy

Nonpartisan

Nebraska Supreme Court District 1

Tenure

2015 - Present

Term ends

2025

Years in position

9

Prior offices

Nebraska 3rd District Court

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Report an officeholder change

Compensation

Base salary

$225,055

Elections and appointments

Last elected

November 5, 2024

Appointed

August 14, 2015

Education

Graduate

University of Nebraska, Omaha, 1988

Law

University of Nebraska, Lincoln, 1991

Personal

Birthplace

Springfield, Mass.

Profession

Attorney

Contact

Official website

Personal website

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Stephanie Stacy is a judge for District 1 of the Nebraska Supreme Court. She assumed office on September 28, 2015. Her current term ends on January 3, 2025.

Stacy ran for re-election for the District 1 judge of the Nebraska Supreme Court. She won in the retention election on November 5, 2024.

Gov. Pete Ricketts (R) appointed Stacy on August 14, 2015, following the retirement of Justice Kenneth Stephan. She was retained by voters in 2018. To read more about judicial selection in Nebraska, click here.

In 2020, Ballotpedia published Ballotpedia Courts: State Partisanship, a study examining the partisan affiliation of all state supreme court justices in the country. As part of this study, we assigned each justice a Confidence Score describing our confidence in the degree of partisanship exhibited by the justices' past partisan behavior, before they joined the court. Stacy received a confidence score of Mild Republican. Click here to read more about this study.

Before her appointment to the state supreme court, Stacy was a judge of Nebraska's Third District Court covering Lancaster County. She practiced law in Lincoln, Neb. from 1993 to 2011.

Stacy was the second woman appointed to the Nebraska Supreme Court after Justice Lindsey Miller-Lerman, who was appointed by Gov. Ben Nelson (D) in 1998.

Biography

Stacy was born on the Westover Air Force Base near Springfield, Mass. She received a bachelor's degree from the University of Nebraska in Omaha in 1988 and a law degree from the University of Nebraska in Lincoln in 1991. She clerked for Magistrate Judge David Piester on the United States District Court for the District of Nebraska from 1991 to 1993, before entering private practice in Lincoln, Neb.

Gov. David Heineman (R) appointed Stacy to Nebraska's Third District Court covering Lancaster County in 2011. She was retained by voters in 2014. In 2015, Gov. Pete Ricketts (R) appointed Stacy to the Nebraska Supreme Court, the first supreme court appointment of his governorship, making her the second woman appointed to the court in Nebraska's history.

Elections

2024

See also:  Nebraska Supreme Court elections, 2024

Nebraska Supreme Court District 1

Stephanie Stacy was retained to District 1 of the Nebraska Supreme Court on November 5, 2024 with 76.1% of the vote.

			Retention  Vote	%	Votes
		✔	Yes	76.1	84,146
			No	23.9	26,439
			Total Votes		110,585

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Source

Endorsements

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Ballotpedia did not identify endorsements for Stacy in this election.

Nebraska Supreme Court (2015-present)

Stacy was appointed to the Nebraska Supreme Court by Gov. Pete Ricketts (R) on August 14, 2015, following the retirement of Justice Kenneth Stephan. She assumed office on September 28, 2015.

2018

See also: Nebraska Supreme Court elections, 2018

Stacy was retained by voters on November 6, 2018, receiving 81.0% of the vote.

Nebraska Supreme Court District 1, Stacy's seat

Stephanie Stacy was retained to District 1 of the Nebraska Supreme Court on November 6, 2018 with 81.0% of the vote.

			Retention  Vote	%	Votes
		✔	Yes	81.0	77,174
			No	19.0	18,141
			Total Votes		95,315

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It has been certified. Source 1 Source 2

Nebraska Third District Court (2011-2015)

Stacy was appointed to the Nebraska Third District Court by Gov. Dave Heineman (R) in 2011.

2014

See also: Nebraska judicial elections, 2014

Stacy was retained by voters on November 4, 2014, receiving 77.8% of the vote.

Nebraska Third District Court 2014 general election results
Candidates		Votes	Percent
Stephanie Stacy		49,483	77.8%
Against retention		14,157	22.2%

Campaign themes

2024

Ballotpedia survey responses

See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection

Stephanie Stacy did not complete Ballotpedia's 2024 Candidate Connection survey.

Campaign finance summary

Campaign finance information for this candidate is not yet available from OpenSecrets. That information will be published here once it is available.

Analysis

Ballotpedia Courts: State Partisanship (2020)

See also: Ballotpedia Courts: State Partisanship and Ballotpedia Courts: Determiners and Dissenters

Last updated: June 15, 2020

In 2020, Ballotpedia published Ballotpedia Courts: State Partisanship, a study examining the partisan affiliation of all state supreme court justices in the country as of June 15, 2020.

The study presented Confidence Scores that represented our confidence in each justice's degree of partisan affiliation. This was not a measure of where a justice fell on an ideological spectrum, but rather a measure of how much confidence we had that a justice was or had been affiliated with a political party. The scores were based on seven factors, including but not limited to party registration.

The five resulting categories of Confidence Scores were:

• Strong Democrat
• Mild Democrat
• Indeterminate
• Mild Republican
• Strong Republican

This justice's Confidence Score, as well as the factors contributing to that score, is presented below. The information below was current as of June 2020.

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Stephanie
Stacy

Nebraska

• Partisan Confidence Score:
  Mild Republican
• Judicial Selection Method:
  Assisted appointment through hybrid judicial nominating commission
• Key Factors:
  • Was a registered Republican as of 2020
  • Donated less than $2,000 to Republican candidates
  • Appointed by a Republican governor

Partisan Profile

Details:

Stacy was a registered Republican as of 2020. She donated $300 to Republican candidates. She was appointed Gov. Pete Ricketts (R) in 2015 when Nebraska was a Republican trifecta.

Noteworthy cases

Keystone XL pipeline approval case (2014)

See also: Keystone XL Pipeline political timeline

On Feb. 19, 2014, Nebraska Third District Court Judge Stephanie Stacy ruled that the governor did not have the authority to approve the passage of the Keystone XL pipeline, an oil pipeline traveling from Canada to Texas, through the state of Nebraska.

In 2012, the Nebraska State Senate passed Legislative Bill 1161 (L.B. 1161) allowing Gov. Dave Heineman (R) to approve the construction of major oil pipelines, rather than the Nebraska Public Service Commission (PSC). Heineman gave his approval in January 2013. Landowners later filed a lawsuit against the state, saying L.B. 1161 violated the Nebraska Constitution by delegating a power to the governor that was reserved for the PSC. Stacy ruled that "the Legislature cannot … divest the PSC of jurisdiction over a class of common carriers and vest such power in another governmental agency." Read Stacy's full ruling here.

The state appealed the ruling to the Nebraska Supreme Court. Four of the seven justices found L.B. 1161 unconstitutional, but Stacy's ruling was ultimately vacated. Article V, Section 2 of the Nebraska Constitution says, "No legislative act shall be held unconstitutional except by the concurrence of five judges."

Construction of the Keystone XL pipeline halted in 2015 after President Barack Obama (D) rejected a border-crossing permit. In 2017, President Donald Trump (R) reversed that decision. In January 2021, President Joe Biden (D) reinstated Obama's rejection. In June 2021, the company building the pipeline announced it was terminating construction.

State supreme court judicial selection in Nebraska

See also: Judicial selection in Nebraska

The seven justices on the Nebraska Supreme Court are selected through the assisted appointment method. The governor appoints each new justice from a list of at least two qualified nominees assembled by a judicial nominating commission. There are separate judicial nominating commissions for each supreme court district, as well as the chief justiceship. Each commission is made up of nine members. Members of the Nebraska State Bar Association select four lawyers and the governor appoints four nonlawyers. The ninth member is a supreme court justice who serves as chairman but does not vote.

Justices must run in a yes-no retention election during the first general election occurring after they have been on the court for three years. Subsequent terms last six years.

Qualifications

To serve on the Nebraska Supreme Court, a person must:

• be at least 30 years old;
• be a U.S. citizen;
• have practiced law in Nebraska for at least five years;
• be a member of the state bar; and
• be a resident of the judicial district for which they are being appointed.

Chief justice

The chief justice of the supreme court is selected through the same assisted appointment method as other justices on the court and serves in that role for the duration of his or her time on the court.

Vacancies

See also: How vacancies are filled in state supreme courts

When a vacancy occurs on the Nebraska Supreme Court, a judicial nominating commission submits the names of at least two qualified nominees to the governor, who appoints one to fill the vacancy. If the governor does not appoint one of the nominees within 60 days, the chief justice of the supreme court is authorized to select a new judge.

The map below highlights how vacancies are filled in state supreme courts across the country.

See also

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External links

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Officeholder

Nebraska Supreme Court District 1

Website

Personal

Website