Nebraska State Motto

Congress passed a Nebraska statehood bill in 1866, but President Andrew Johnson vetoed it because Nebraska's constitution contained a whites-only voting clause. Johnson opposed Congressional interference in state constitutions, and the bill died when Congress adjourned. Nebraska remained a territory.

Congress reconvened in 1867 with a new statehood bill that required Nebraska to remove racial voting restrictions as a condition for admission. Johnson vetoed this measure too. Congress overrode his veto with a two-thirds majority in both houses. Nebraska became the only state in American history to be admitted to the Union over a presidential veto, on March 1, 1867.

Governor Butler immediately called a special legislative session on February 20, 1867, where lawmakers voted to remove the whites-only language from the constitution. Isaac Wiles, who would later propose the motto, participated in this historic vote. Three months later, Wiles introduced the seal legislation containing the motto. The legislature passed it on June 14, 1867 — and ratified the Fourteenth Amendment the following day, June 15.

Isaac Wiles served as representative from Cass County and introduced the bill specifying the seal design and motto. He proposed two alternative phrasings: 'Equality Before the Law' and 'Equal Rights for All.' Before deciding, Wiles consulted Elmer S. Dundy, who was serving as a Nebraska Supreme Court associate justice. Dundy preferred 'Equality Before the Law,' and the legislature adopted his recommendation.

Twelve years later, in 1879, Judge Elmer Dundy presided over Standing Bear v. Crook, a case brought by Chief Standing Bear of the Ponca tribe who had been arrested and forcibly removed from Nebraska. Dundy ruled: 'An Indian is a person within the meaning of the laws of the United States.' It was one of the first times a federal court ruled that Native Americans had habeas corpus rights. The judge who helped choose a motto about equality before the law later applied that principle in one of the most significant Native American rights cases in American history.

Historical records identify Nebraska Republicans' 1866 party platform as a likely source for the phrase. The platform included a resolution declaring the party owed a duty to 'secure liberty and equality before the law to all men.' The wording appears almost verbatim in the platform documents, and Wiles, a Republican, likely knew it from party conventions.

The Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 had created Nebraska Territory with a controversial popular sovereignty provision on slavery — settlers could vote on whether to permit it. This arrangement fueled the conflicts leading to the Civil War. After Confederate surrender in 1865, Nebraska's path to statehood became entangled in the national struggle over Reconstruction policy.

The Fourteenth Amendment was working its way through ratification in 1867. Nebraska ratified it on June 15, 1867 — one day after adopting the motto. The amendment's equal protection clause gave constitutional weight to the principle that 'equality before the law' was not just a state motto but a requirement of federal law. Nebraska's motto and the Fourteenth Amendment were adopted within 24 hours of each other.

Nebraska's motto is unique among the 50 states in making equality its explicit subject. Only Wyoming's 'Equal Rights' expresses a similar idea, and both mottos date from the post-Civil War period. The phrase 'Equality Before the Law' as Nebraska's motto emerged directly from the fights over who counted as a person before the law — a question Nebraska's own statehood process had forced into the open.