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Jeffrey Funke
2024 - Present
2028
0
Jeffrey Funke is the Chief Justice of the Nebraska Supreme Court. He assumed office on November 1, 2024. His current term ends on November 7, 2028.
Funke ran for re-election for the District 5 judge of the Nebraska Supreme Court. He won in the retention election on November 3, 2020.
Gov. Pete Ricketts (R) appointed Funke on June 15, 2016, to succeed retiring Justice William Connolly.[1] He was appointed as chief justice of the court by Gov. Jim Pillen (R) on October 25, 2024, to replace Michael Heavican. 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] Funke received a confidence score of Mild Republican.[3] Click here to read more about this study.
Before his appointment to the state supreme court, Funke was a judge on Nebraska's Second District Court from 2013 to 2016. He was a judge on the County Court of the Second Judicial District covering Cass, Otoe, and Sarpy Counties from 2007 to 2013.[4]
Biography
Funke was born on April 27, 1969, in Nebraska City, Neb.[5] He received a bachelor's degree and a law degree from the University of Nebraska in Lincoln in 1991 and 1994, respectively.[5]
Funke was an attorney in private practice from 1994 to 2007. During the same time, he was a deputy public defender (1994-1997), deputy county attorney (1997-2005), and county attorney (2005-2007) in Otoe County, Neb.[4]
In 2007, Gov. Dave Heineman (R) appointed Funke to the County Court of the Second Judicial District covering Cass, Otoe, and Sarpy Counties. In 2013, Heineman appointed Funke to Nebraska's Second District Court, where he served until he was appointed to the Nebraska Supreme Court by Gov. Pete Ricketts (R) in 2016.[1][6]
Elections
2020
- See also: Nebraska Supreme Court elections, 2020
Funke was retained by voters on November 3, 2020, receiving 78.8% of the vote.
Nebraska Supreme Court District 5, Funke's seat
Jeffrey Funke was retained to District 5 of the Nebraska Supreme Court on November 3, 2020 with 78.8% of the vote.
Retention Vote |
% |
Votes |
|||
| ✔ | Yes |
78.8
|
93,418 | ||
No |
21.2
|
25,152 | |||
Total Votes |
118,570 | ||||
|
|
2010
- See also: Nebraska judicial elections, 2010
Funke was retained by voters on November 2, 2010, receiving 68.3% of the vote.[7]
| Nebraska Second County Court 2010 general election results | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Candidates | Votes | Percent | ||
Jeffrey Funke 
|
27,434 | 68.3% | ||
| Against retention | 12,722 | 31.7% | ||
Campaign themes
2020
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Jeffrey Funke did not complete Ballotpedia's 2020 Candidate Connection survey.
Appointments
2024
Governor Jim Pillen (R) appointed associate justice Jeffrey Funke to the Nebraska Supreme Court. Funke replaced Chief Justice Michael Heavican, who retired on October 31, 2024.[8] Funke is Gov. Pillen's first appointment to the seven-member supreme court.
In Nebraska, state supreme court justices are selected through assisted appointment with a hybrid judicial nominating commission. Justices are appointed by the governor with the assistance of a commission who has no majority of members selected either by the governor or the state Bar Association. There are 10 states that use this selection method. To read more about the assisted appointment of judges, click here.
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.[9]
2013
Funke was appointed to Nebraska's Second District Court by Gov. Dave Heineman (R) on July 31, 2013, to replace retiring Judge Randall Rehmeier.[6]
2007
Funke was appointed to the County Court of the Second Judicial District covering Cass, Otoe, and Sarpy Counties by Gov. Dave Heineman (R) in 2007.[6]
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.[10]
The five resulting categories of Confidence Scores were:
- Strong Democrat
- Mild Democrat
- Indeterminate[11]
- 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.
Jeffrey
Funke
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
- Appointed by a Republican governor
- State was a Republican trifecta at time of appointment
Partisan Profile
Details:
Funke was a registered Republican as of 2020. He was appointed by Gov. Pete Ricketts (R) in 2016 while Nebraska was a Republican 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.[12][13] 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.[13][14]
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.[9]
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.[15]
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.[16]
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.[9]
The map below highlights how vacancies are filled in state supreme courts across the country.
See also
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 KMA Land, "Funke appointed to Nebraska Supreme Court," June 15, 2016
- ↑ 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 State of Nebraska Judicial Branch, "Hon. Jeffrey J. Funke," accessed July 22, 2021
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Nebraska State Legislature, "2020-2021 Bluebook," accessed July 22, 2021
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 Governor Dave Heineman, "Gov. Heineman Names Jeffrey J. Funke to District Court 2nd Judicial District," July 31, 2013
- ↑ Nebraska Secretary of State, "Official Report of the Board of State Canvassers of the State of Nebraska," accessed July 22, 2021
- ↑ Nebraska Supreme Court, "Retirement Letter from Chief Justice to Governor Jim Pillen," August 21, 2024
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 State of Nebraska Judicial Branch, "Branch Overview," accessed August 16, 2021
- ↑ 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
- ↑ 13.0 13.1 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
- ↑ 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
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
