Doug Peterson (born April 4, 1959) is an American lawyer and politician who was the 33rd

attorney general of Nebraska The Nebraska Attorney General is the chief law enforcement officer and lawyer for the U.S. state of Nebraska Nebraska () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by South Dakota to the north; Iowa to the e ...

. A

Republican Republican can refer to: Political ideology * An advocate of a republic, a type of government that is not a monarchy or dictatorship, and is usually associated with the rule of law. ** Republicanism, the ideology in support of republics or agains ...

, Peterson was elected attorney general during the 2014 election and assumed office in January 2015.

Biography

Peterson, who was born in

Columbus, Nebraska Columbus is a city in and the county seat of Platte County, in the state of Nebraska in the Midwestern United States. The population was 22,111 at the 2010 census. It is the 10th largest city in Nebraska, with 24,028 people as of the 2020 censu ...

, was raised in

Lincoln, Nebraska Lincoln is the capital city of the U.S. state of Nebraska and the county seat of Lancaster County. The city covers with a population of 292,657 in 2021. It is the second-most populous city in Nebraska and the 73rd-largest in the United Sta ...

. He graduated from the

University of Nebraska A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, ...

in 1981 and earned a Juris Doctor from the

Pepperdine University School of Law The Pepperdine University Rick J. Caruso School of Law (formerly Pepperdine University School of Law) is the law school of Pepperdine University, a private research university in Los Angeles County, California. The school offers the Juris D ...

in 1985. Peterson worked for the district attorney of Lincoln County for two years until serving an additional two years as an assistant Nebraska attorney general to Robert Spire from 1988 until 1990. He entered private practice, where he would remain until his 2014 election as Attorney General of Nebraska. Peterson was sworn in as the 32nd attorney general of Nebraska at the

Nebraska State Capitol The Nebraska State Capitol is the seat of government for the U.S. state of Nebraska and is located in downtown Lincoln. Designed by New York architect Bertram Grosvenor Goodhue in 1920, it was constructed of Indiana limestone from 1922 to 19 ...

in Lincoln on January 8, 2015. Peterson, who lives in Lincoln, is the nephew of former governor of Nebraska

Val Peterson Frederick Valdemar Erastus Peterson (July 18, 1903 – October 17, 1983), also known as Val Peterson, was an American politician and diplomat who served as the 26th governor of Nebraska from 1947 to 1953, as director of the Federal Civil Defense A ...

Tenure

In July 2017, Texas attorney general

Ken Paxton Warren Kenneth Paxton Jr. (born December 23, 1962) is an American lawyer and politician who has served as the Attorney General of Texas since January 2015. Paxton has described himself as a Tea Party conservative. Paxton was re-elected to a t ...

led a group of Republican attorneys general from nine other states, including Peterson, plus Idaho governor

Butch Otter Clement Leroy "Butch" Otter (born May 3, 1942) is an American businessman and politician who served as the 32nd governor of Idaho from 2007 to 2019. A member of the Republican Party, he was elected in 2006, and reelected in 2010, and 2014. Otter ...

, in threatening the

Donald Trump Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021. Trump graduated from the Wharton School of the University of P ...

administration that they would litigate if the president did not terminate the

Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, colloquially referred to as DACA, is a United States immigration policy that allows some individuals with unlawful presence in the United States after being brought to the country as children to receive ...

(DACA) policy that had been put into place by president

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the ...

. Tennessee attorney general Herbert H. Slatery, III subsequently reversed his position and withdrew his participation from the proposed suit on August 31. Slatery went further to urge passage of the

DREAM Act The Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors Act, known as the DREAM Act, is a United States legislative proposal to grant temporary conditional residency, with the right to work, to illegal immigrants who entered the United States a ...

. The other attorneys general who joined in making the threats against Trump included

Leslie Rutledge Leslie Carol Rutledge (born June 9, 1976) is an American attorney and politician from the state of Arkansas, served as the 56th attorney general of Arkansas from 2015 to 2023. She is the 21st lieutenant governor of Arkansas, since 2023. Rutledge ...

of Arkansas,

Lawrence Wasden Lawrence Garth Wasden is an American attorney and politician who served as the Idaho Attorney General from 2003 to 2023. First elected in 2002, he was the longest-serving attorney general in Idaho history. Wasden was re-elected four more times be ...

of Idaho,

Derek Schmidt Derek Larkin Schmidt (born January 23, 1968) is an American lawyer and politician who has been the Kansas Attorney General since 2011. A Republican, Schmidt was first elected to office serving in the Kansas Senate, where he represented the 15 ...

of Kansas,

Jeff Landry Jeffrey Martin Landry (born December 23, 1970) is an American lawyer and politician serving as the Attorney General of Louisiana. He defeated Republican incumbent Buddy Caldwell in a runoff election held on November 21, 2015, and took office on J ...

of Louisiana, Alan Wilson of South Carolina, and

Patrick Morrisey Patrick James Morrisey (born December 21, 1967) is an American politician and attorney serving as the 34th Attorney General of West Virginia since 2013. He is a member of the Republican Party. Morrisey was elected Attorney General of West Vi ...

of West Virginia.SPLC denounces letter from 10 Attorneys General seeking "cruel and heartless" repeal of DACA
''

Southern Poverty Law Center The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) is an American 501(c)(3) nonprofit legal advocacy organization specializing in civil rights and public interest litigation. Based in Montgomery, Alabama, it is known for its legal cases against white s ...

'', June 30, 2017. Retrieved September 2, 2017.

Electoral history

References

1959 births 21st-century American politicians Living people Nebraska Attorneys General Nebraska lawyers Nebraska Republicans People from Columbus, Nebraska Politicians from Lincoln, Nebraska Pepperdine University alumni University of Nebraska–Lincoln alumni {{Nebraska-politician-stub