David Domina

David Alan Domina is an American lawyer and politician from Nebraska. A member of the Democratic Party, he was involved in a number of high-profile legal cases, including the impeachment of Nebraska Attorney General Paul L. Douglas in 1986, and that of University of Nebraska regent David Hergert in 2006. Beginning in 2012, he represented opponents of the Keystone XL pipeline in contesting a legislative measure relating to the use of eminent domain for the pipeline.

In 1986, Domina unsuccessfully ran for the Democratic nomination in Nebraska's gubernatorial election. In 2014, he was the Democratic nominee for the U.S. Senate seat to be vacated by Mike Johanns; he lost the election to Republican Ben Sasse, taking 31.5% of the vote to Sasse's 64.3%.

Early life and career

Domina was born in Cedar County in northeastern Nebraska, and grew up on a farm. The case was appealed to the Nebraska Supreme Court, which issued its ruling in January 2015: a majority of four justices found the challenged pipeline-route law unconstitutional; the remaining three justices found that the plaintiffs in the case lacked standing to challenge the law. Since a five-justice supermajority was necessary to strike down a Nebraska law as unconstitutional, the court's decision effectively upheld the pipeline law, reversing the District Court's ruling.

2014 U.S. Senate campaign

In January 2014, Domina announced his candidacy for the U.S. Senate seat held by Republican Mike Johanns, who had announced that he would not seek reelection.