Nebraska State Senator Ernie Chambers has not sat down in his seat in that unicameral body for a decade. Standing is his way of signaling his physical strength at age 76, he says, and his mental resolve to continue his 38-year career representing the voiceless, the scorned, and the marginalized citizens of his state.
In 1983, in one of his many causes, Chambers strenuously argued before his colleagues and then through the federal courts that nothing religious in nature should transpire on the legislative floor. The U.S. Supreme Court disagreed with him in the case that bears his name: Marsh v. Chambers.
