Journalists might take for granted their right to report utterances made in open court, but they have the organized efforts of Nebraska me­dia outlets to thank for a landmark Supreme Court decision establish­ing that right.

The media coalition came togeth­er to fight a North Platte judge’s or­der in 1975 to stop the publication and broadcasting of accounts of a confession or other facts “strongly implicative” of guilt in a Sutherland murder case.

It’s a subject Danielle Conrad and Amy Miller often find themselves addressing, but let’s be clear: Free speech needs to be defended.

It’s true, and somewhat surpris­ing, that an organization which has been around 99 years – and for more than 50 years in Nebraska – the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) often is more than a little understood.

Miller, the ACLU Nebraska’s le­gal director, feels the con­fusion stems from people not under­standing the organization is nonparti­san. 

Fifty years ago, wives of local lawyers and judges decided to band together for camaraderie and support. They created the Omaha Lawyers’ Wives organization and elected Patty Buckley as their first president.

They submitted their original article of incorporation as a non­profit on Feb. 20, 1969. Seven years later, almost to the day, they changed the group’s name to the Omaha Law League Foundation Inc. in order to better reflect their membership, which included judges, lawyers and others inter­ested in their mission

The legal profession owes a debt of gratitude to Creighton University Law Professor G. Michael Fenner.

Fenner helped preserve the Nebraska State Bar Association in the immediate aftermath of its court-mandated transition to a vol­untary membership. Fenner has facilitated visits by Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas to teach law seminars at Creighton for more than two decades. On a personal level, Fenner has mentored, en­couraged and supported countless law students and young attorneys as they began their careers.