LINCOLN — The Nebraska Supreme Court upheld on Friday a more than century-old state law that requires the appointment — rather than the election — of election commissioners in the state’s three most populous counties.

The ruling resolves a dispute that had drawn in the state’s top elected officials, and stemmed from a Nebraska attorney general legal opinion in 2019 that questioned the constitutionality of appointing election commissioners and their deputies in Douglas, Lancaster and Sarpy Counties.

The AG’s opinion spawned a lawsuit to clarify the issue, and prompted Gov. Pete Ricketts to hold off on appointing a replacement for Douglas County Election Commissioner Brian Kruse, whose four-year term was about to expire.

The Supreme Court, in a 17-page decision written by Justice Jeffrey Funke, sided with a Lancaster County judge who ruled that the Attorney General’s Office had “swept too broadly” in interpreting who qualified as a county officer — an elected position.

“We hold that the Legislature possesses the discretionary authority to create and define county offices, a power which includes the ability to define or identify who is a county officer,” Funke wrote.

The AG’s opinion was requested by State Sen. Matt Hansen of Lincoln. He made the request after Civic Nebraska, a Lincoln-based group working to promote civic involvement, raised the issue.

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