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John Freudenberg
2018 - Present
2029
7
John Freudenberg is a judge for District 6 of the Nebraska Supreme Court. He assumed office on July 6, 2018. His current term ends on January 4, 2029.
Freudenberg ran for re-election for the District 6 judge of the Nebraska Supreme Court. He won in the retention election on November 8, 2022.
Gov. Pete Ricketts (R) appointed Freudenberg on June 18, 2018, following the death of Justice John Wright.[1] To learn more about this appointment, 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.[2] Freudenberg received a confidence score of Strong Republican.[3] Click here to read more about this study.
Before his appointment to the state supreme court, Freudenberg was a judge on Nebraska's County Court of the Third Judicial District covering Lancaster County. He previously worked as the Criminal Bureau Chief in the Nebraska Attorney General's office and in the Sheridan and Scotts Bluff county attorney's offices.[4]
Biography
Freudenberg was born on November 12, 1969, in Gordon, Neb.[5] He received a bachelor's degree from Chadron State College in 1992 and a law degree from the University of Nebraska in Lincoln in 1995.[5]
Freudenberg began his career as an attorney in Norfolk, Neb. before joining the Scotts Bluff county attorney's office as a deputy county attorney in 1996.[4] He worked as the county attorney, special prosecutor, and county coroner in Sheridan County from 1998 to 2007. During that time, he was also a partner with a law office in Gordon.[4] In 2007, he joined the Nebraska Attorney General's office as chief of the criminal bureau.
Gov. Pete Ricketts (R) appointed Freudenberg to the County Court for the Third Judicial District covering Lancaster County in 2017. In 2018, Ricketts appointed Freudenberg to the Nebraska Supreme Court.[4]
Elections
2022
See also: Nebraska Supreme Court elections, 2022
Nebraska Supreme Court District 6, John Freudenberg's seat
John Freudenberg was retained to District 6 of the Nebraska Supreme Court on November 8, 2022 with 76.2% of the vote.
Retention Vote |
% |
Votes |
|||
| ✔ | Yes |
76.2
|
67,676 | ||
No |
23.8
|
21,172 | |||
Total Votes |
88,848 | ||||
|
|
Campaign themes
2022
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
John Freudenberg did not complete Ballotpedia's 2022 Candidate Connection survey.
Appointments
2018
Nebraska Supreme Court Justice John Wright passed away on March 18, 2018, leaving a vacancy on the Nebraska Supreme Court. Media outlets reported that Wright had battled a long illness. Wright was 72.[6]
Under Nebraska law, Wright's replacement was chosen by Gov. Pete Ricketts (R) from a list generated by a judicial nominating commission. Wright's replacement was Ricketts' fifth appointment to the seven-member supreme court.
2017
Gov. Pete Ricketts (R) appointed Freudenberg to the County Court of the Third Justicial District covering Lancaster County on April 6, 2017, following the resignation of Judge Thomas W. Fox.[7]
Analysis
Ballotpedia Courts: State Partisanship (2020)
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.[8]
The five resulting categories of Confidence Scores were:
- Strong Democrat
- Mild Democrat
- Indeterminate[9]
- 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.
John
Freudenberg
Nebraska
- Partisan Confidence Score:
Strong Republican - Judicial Selection Method:
Assisted appointment through hybrid judicial nominating commission - Key Factors:
- Was a registered Republican as of 2020
- Held political office as a Republican
- Appointed by a Republican governor
Partisan Profile
Details:
Freudenberg was a registered Republican as of 2020. From 2007 through 2017, he was the criminal bureau chief of the Nebraska Attorney General's Office in the administration of a Republican Attorney General. He was appointed by Gov. Pete Ricketts (R) in 2018 while Nebraska was a Republican controlled trifecta.
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.[10][11] 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.[11][12]
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.[13]
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.[14]
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.[15]
Vacancies
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.[13]
The map below highlights how vacancies are filled in state supreme courts across the country.
See also
2022 Elections
External links
|
Officeholder Nebraska Supreme Court District 6 |
Footnotes
- ↑ Governor of Nebraska, "Gov. Ricketts Names John R. Freudenberg to the Supreme Court," June 18, 2018
- ↑ We calculated confidence scores by collecting several data points such as party registration, donations, and previous political campaigns.
- ↑ The five possible confidence scores were: Strong Democrat, Mild Democrat, Indeterminate, Mild Republican, and Strong Republican.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 State of Nebraska Judicial Branch, "Hon. John R. Freudenberg," July 21, 2021
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Nebraska State Legislature, "2020-2021 Bluebook," accessed July 21, 2021
- ↑ ctpost, "Nebraska Supreme Court Justice Wright dies at age 72," March 19, 2018
- ↑ Officer of Governor Pete Ricketts, "Gov. Ricketts Names John R. Freudenberg to Third Judicial District Judgeship," April 6, 2017
- ↑ The seven factors were party registration, donations made to partisan candidates, donations made to political parties, donations received from political parties or bodies with clear political affiliation, participation in political campaigns, the partisanship of the body responsible for appointing the justice, and state trifecta status when the justice joined the court.
- ↑ An Indeterminate score indicates that there is either not enough information about the justice’s partisan affiliations or that our research found conflicting partisan affiliations.
- ↑ National Center for State Courts, "Judicial Selection in the States: Nebraska | Overview," accessed August 16, 2021
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 National Center for State Courts, "Judicial Selection in the States: Nebraska | Judicial Nominating Commissions," accessed August 16, 2021
- ↑ Nebraska Legislature, "Nebraska State Constitution Article V-21," accessed August 16, 2021
- ↑ 13.0 13.1 State of Nebraska Judicial Branch, "Branch Overview," accessed August 16, 2021
- ↑ Nebraska Legislature, "Nebraska Revised Statute 24-202," accessed August 16, 2021
- ↑ National Center for State Courts, "Methods of Judicial Selection: Nebraska," accessed August 16, 2021
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Federal courts:
Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals • U.S. District Court: District of Nebraska • U.S. Bankruptcy Court: District of Nebraska
State courts:
Nebraska Supreme Court • Nebraska Court of Appeals • Nebraska District Courts • Nebraska County Courts • Nebraska Separate Juvenile Courts • Nebraska Workers' Compensation Court • Nebraska Problem-Solving Courts
State resources:
Courts in Nebraska • Nebraska judicial elections • Judicial selection in Nebraska
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