Nebraska voter sues to keep ‘fairness for girls’ measure off ballot

LINCOLN —  A Nebraska voter is asking the state Supreme Court to overturn the secretary of state’s decision to put a measure on the fall ballot that would let Nebraska voters decide whether to constitutionally limit sports participation in public K-12 schools and colleges to teams of biologically male, female or co-ed students. 

Last week, the state’s top election official, Bob Evnen, announced that the petition effort had collected enough valid signatures to be on the November ballot. Cara Ullman, a registered Democrat, filed the lawsuit Monday with the Nebraska Supreme Court. 

Ullman, through lawyers from Gutman Law Group, argues that the measure’s object statement doesn’t comply with state law because it doesn’t properly describe the “legal effect of the filing of the petition and the object sought to be secured by submitting the measure to the voters.”

The petition’s object statement reads “​​The object of this petition is to amend the Nebraska Constitution to establish constitutional protections for sex-separate athletics to ensure equal access to athletic opportunities for females.” 

“It doesn’t mention schools at all,” part of the lawsuit reads. “Instead, the Initiative contains a vague, misleading, and incomplete statement that the proposed amendment provides ‘constitutional protections for sex-separate athletics to ensure equal access to athletic opportunities’ for female athletes.” 

The measure would “amend the Nebraska Constitution to establish constitutional protections for sex-separate athletics to ensure equal access to athletic opportunities for females.” If passed, it would constitutionally cement an existing state law requiring that all student-athletes who compete in public K-12 or college sports compete on a team that matches their sex at birth.

The ballot language wouldn’t define “sex” in the state constitution itself, relying on the definition in state law that was passed last year, introduced by state Sen. Kathleen Kauth, that “sex” refers to whether someone “naturally has, had, will or would have, but for a congenital anomaly or intentional or unintentional disruption, the reproductive system that at some point produces, transports and utilizes” either eggs or sperm for fertilization. 

According to the lawsuit, Ullman signed the petition for the measure by mistake because “she was not informed of the true contents of the proposed law” – saying that she would not sign if she had been informed of what the measure sought to accomplish. 

Ullman is asking the Supreme Court to weigh in, not a district court, because the deadline to certify the ballot is Sept 11. 

The ballot initiative is one of four statewide ballot measures whose petitions are under investigation by the Lancaster County Sheriff’s Office for possible fraud. 

The general election is Nov 3.