Jon Bruning

Jon Cumberland Bruning (born April 30, 1969) is an American politician who served as the 32nd Attorney General of Nebraska from 2003 to 2015.

Bruning and Pruitt argued that the Colorado measure violated the Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution, since the U.S. Congress had enacted the 1970 Controlled Substances Act, which imposed a nationwide ban on marijuana.

In connection with the suit, Bruning declared that marijuana was a "gateway drug that is a detriment to society" and that "I don't want it to be a legal option for my children or your option or anyone's children in this state or in this country."

After high school, Bruning went on to the University of Nebraska where he received a bachelor's degree in 1990 with High Distinction.

Bruning was a member of Phi Beta Kappa and the Innocents Society, a senior honor society at Nebraska that honors 13 seniors for leadership, scholarship and service.

After completing his undergraduate studies, Bruning attended the University of Nebraska-Lincoln College of Law, where he received his Juris Doctor in 1994.

In 1995, Bruning married Deonne Niemack; the couple has two children, Lauren and Jack.

Bruning served as general counsel for Vital Learning Corporation from 1995 to 1997.

Bruning ran to represent the 3rd district of the Nebraska Legislature in 1996.

He defeated incumbent Michael Avery 55%–44%.

He was the youngest member of the legislature.

A member of the Republican Party, he previously represented the 3rd district in the Nebraska Legislature from 1997 until 2003.

In 1998, he sponsored a bill that would extend loans to college students in order to encourage them to stay in the state.

He won re-election in 2000 unopposed.

Bruning was elected Attorney General of Nebraska in 2002 with 66% of the vote, becoming the youngest attorney general in the country at the time, and the youngest in Nebraska history.

In 2004, he worked with the Nebraska Legislature to create Nebraska's Medicaid Fraud Unit.

In 2005, Bruning launched a criminal probe of University of Nebraska Regent David Hergert related to campaign finances.

In the same year, he charged a 20-year-old man with rape after his 14-year-old wife became pregnant.

He won reelection unopposed in 2006 and 2010.

In 2007, Bruning entered the race for the U.S. Senate seat then held by Chuck Hagel, and raised more than $1 million for his campaign.

Later that year, however, Hagel announced that he would not seek reelection; soon thereafter, former Nebraska Governor Mike Johanns joined the race for the now-open seat.

Faced with an overwhelming likelihood that Johanns would win the Republican primary, Bruning withdrew from the campaign almost a year before the election.

He served as President of the National Association of Attorneys General from 2009 to 2010.

He traveled to Iraq as President of the National Association of Attorneys General (NAAG) and signed training agreement with Iraq Jurists Union.

In late 2010, Bruning announced that he would run in the 2012 election for the U.S. Senate seat held by Democrat Ben Nelson, whose approval ratings in Nebraska had plummeted after he provided the 60th and final vote necessary to break a Republican filibuster and pass the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

During a speech in August 2011, Bruning compared welfare recipients to raccoons.

Bruning said his comment might have been "inartful" but that he was trying to make a point about spending cuts being necessary.

In August 2011, the Omaha World-Herald reported that Bruning had purchased a lakeside house valued at $675,000 near the Platte River in partnership with two Nelnet executives, almost a year after he and his office had been accused of acting favorably toward the student loan company by not enforcing payment of a $1 million judgment awarded to the State of Nebraska when Nelnet was under fire for alleged improper business practices.

In December 2011, Nelson announced that he would not seek reelection.

Bruning was seen as the strong front-runner in the Republican primary race; former Attorney General and current State Treasurer Don Stenberg, favored by the conservative Tea Party movement, was seen as his strongest challenger.

Bruning and Stenberg attacked one another aggressively throughout the campaign.

Shortly before the election, the political action committee Ending Spending, financed by Omaha businessman Joe Ricketts, ran a television ad attacking Bruning for buying a lake house together with two executives of Lincoln student-loan firm Nelnet less than a year after Bruning, in his capacity as attorney general, had sought to waive a $1 million penalty against the company.

He was a candidate in the 2012 United States Senate election in Nebraska, losing the Republican nomination to Deb Fischer and in the 2014 Nebraska gubernatorial election, also losing the nomination to Pete Ricketts.

Bruning was born and raised in Lincoln, Nebraska, a fifth generation Nebraskan, and graduated from Lincoln Southeast High School.

The Medicaid Fraud Unit recovered more than $20 million in 2012 and nearly $68 million since 2004.

In 2012, Bruning sued the Federal government of the United States over the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act with a 26 state coalition.

His office led the legal challenge to the federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act's provision regarding employer-paid health insurance requirements related to abortion.

In 2013, Bruning was fined a $19,000 civil penalty by the Federal Election Commission for campaign finance violations during his 2012 U.S. Senate election effort.

In late 2014, Bruning, together with Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt, filed a suit in the Supreme Court of the United States in which they asked that Colorado's Amendment 64, which legalized marijuana in that state, be struck down.

Bruning left office as Nebraska Attorney General with the inauguration of his successor, Doug Peterson, on January 8, 2015.