Opinion ID: 2029434
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 21

Heading: defendant's first amendment challenges

Text: In his answer and closing trial brief. Hergert challenges articles of impeachment VII, IX, and X on First Amendment grounds, arguing that various provisions of the NPADA and the CFLA are unconstitutional limitations on campaign expenditures. Relying on Buckley v. Valeo, 424 U.S. 1, 96 S.Ct. 612, 46 L.Ed.2d 659 (1976), Hergert asserts that the forty-percent affidavit requirement of § 32-1604(5)(b), as well as the 50 percent of contributions loan limitation of § 49-1446.04, are unconstitutional constraints on campaign financing and violative of the First Amendment. Further, Hergert attacks the constitutionality of the CFLA generally on First Amendment grounds, arguing, inter alia, that requiring nonabiding candidates to lock themselves into expenditure estimates unconstitutionally bars a candidate from spending as much money as he or she feels necessary to combat his opponent late in the race if newly discovered campaign issues arise. That, Hergert asserts, amounts to an overwhelming burden on a nonabiding candidate's right to speak. Hergert's constitutional challenge is not unlike the situation in State ex rel. NSBA v. Douglas, 227 Neb. 1, 416 N.W.2d 515 (1987) ( NSBA v. Douglas ), in which the respondent, Paul L. Douglas, challenged the constitutionality of the NPADA in an attorney disciplinary proceeding. In NSBA v. Douglas, this court adopted the `fraud and deceit' standing doctrine established in Dennis v. United States, 384 U.S. 855, 86 S.Ct. 1840, 16 L.Ed.2d 973 (1966). See State v. Monastero, 228 Neb. 818, 830, 424 N.W.2d 837, 846 (1988). That doctrine precludes a defendant's constitutional challenge to a particular statute, or statutory scheme, when the defendant has fraudulently circumvented or avoided that particular statute and ... seeks to raise a constitutional question concerning the statute which the defendant had fraudulently circumvented or avoided in a proceeding not intended to enforce the statute. Id. at 830-31, 424 N.W.2d at 846. The Dennis Court stated in part: `When one undertakes to cheat the Government or to mislead its officers, or those acting under its authority, by false statements, he has no standing to assert that the operations of the Government in which the effort to cheat or mislead is made are without constitutional sanction.' 384 U.S. at 866, 86 S.Ct. 1840, quoting Kay v. United States, 303 U.S. 1, 58 S.Ct. 468, 82 L.Ed. 607 (1938). Relying on that language in Dennis, we held that the respondent lacked standing to raise a constitutional challenge to the NPADA. We stated: In Dennis, the prosecution was for the petitioners' fraud. It was not an action to enforce the statute claimed to be unconstitutional. The same is true with the case at bar. It is a case directed at the respondent's actions, not a case to enforce the statute claimed to be unconstitutional. NSBA v. Douglas, 227 Neb. at 36, 416 N.W.2d at 536. Those same principles apply in this matter, albeit an impeachment proceeding rather than an attorney disciplinary or criminal proceeding. As in NSBA v. Douglas, the question in this impeachment proceeding is not whether Hergert is technically guilty of the crimes charged in the articles of impeachment which arise out of the CFLA and/or the NPADA; rather, as we noted earlier in this opinion, it is Hergert's conduct or actions which are at issue. The holding in NSBA v. Douglas is equally applicable here: In the proceeding before us, relator is not trying in any way to charge respondent with any violation of the act, but has merely alleged that certain conduct of respondent has not measured up to the standard that our statutes have set for certain purposes. Respondent, of course, is in a particular situation where he, as the Attorney General of Nebraska, chose to comply with the act by making filings under the act. We hold that respondent has no standing to challenge the act's constitutionality in this proceeding and that we are judging his conduct in furnishing information to the public, as required by the act. If respondent has chosen to mislead the public by his filings under the act, we are not concerned with any violation of the act, but with his conduct in improperly informing, or in misleading, the public. (Emphasis supplied.) (Emphasis in original.) 227 Neb. at 36, 416 N.W.2d at 536. In this case, Hergert chose to comply with the CFLA and the NPADA by making filings thereunder. We are not concerned with specific violations of these acts in this impeachment proceeding, but, rather, we are concerned only with his conduct in furnishing the NADC, as well as the public, with information required by these acts. Thus, in this case, as in NSBA v. Douglas, we will not reach the claims of the unconstitutionality of these statutes.