Exempt certain activities from disciplinary action under the Medicine and Surgery Practice Act
LB 202 exempts licensed physicians and osteopathic doctors in Nebraska from disciplinary action for expressing medical opinions in public or professional forums. It amends the Medicine and Surgery Practice Act to explicitly state that such expression cannot be used to deny, suspend, or revoke a medical license. The bill repeals the prior section that allowed discipline for failing to comply with specific birth/death certificate signing rules, though those administrative requirements remain in effect. This change directly protects medical professionals' First Amendment rights regarding public discussion of medical viewpoints, without altering clinical practice standards.
Bill status
signed
all 5 stages cleared
Introduction
Jan 2025
Committee Review
Mar 2025
Legislature Passage
Feb 2026
Legislature Passage
Jan 2026
Signed into Law
Feb 2026
Introduced Jan 14, 2025
Signed Feb 25, 2026
Maddy AI version diff · 1 comparison
What changed between versions
Introduced
→
Final Reading
·
3 edits
MINOR
This bill amends Nebraska's Medicine and Surgery Practice Act to clarify protections for healthcare professionals expressing opinions in public forums. The changes add specific language to ensure that opinions expressed in public or professional forums are not subject to disciplinary action, while explicitly excluding opinions offered during actual patient care from this protection. The bill also updates session year references from 2025 to 2026 and changes 'FIRST SESSION' to 'SECOND SESSION' for the 109th Legislature.
Scope change
The bill's scope was refined to clarify that disciplinary protections apply only to public or professional forum expressions, not to opinions given during actual medical practice with patients.
REQUIREMENT
Added language specifying that disciplinary protections do not apply to opinions expressed during actual patient care or service provision.
Changed 'applicant or licensee' to 'an applicant or licensee' in the disciplinary protection clause for grammatical consistency.
TECHNICAL
Updated legislative session references from 2025 to 2026 and changed 'FIRST SESSION' to 'SECOND SESSION' for the 109th Legislature.
Floor votes · Legislature Jan 28, 2026
How they voted
27–0
Passed · 22 other
Total votes 49
Jan 28, 2026
N
Nonpartisan49
55% Yea
Vote distribution
All Yea
All Nay
Mixed
No data
Full legislative history
Actions timeline
Total actions
15
Key actions
5
Committee
2
Feb 25, 2026
Signed into law
Approved by Governor on February 24, 2026
executive
Feb 20, 2026
Legislature · Passed
President/Speaker signed
legislature
Feb 20, 2026
Legislature · Passed
Passed on Final Reading 45-1*-3
legislature
Jan 28, 2026
Legislature · Passed
Health and Human Services AM57 adopted
legislature
Mar 18, 2025
Legislature · Passed
Placed on General File with AM57
legislature
Jan 16, 2025
Committee
Referred to Health and Human Services Committee
legislature
Jan 14, 2025
Introduced
Date of introduction
legislature
1 primary · 0 co-sponsors
Sponsors
Role
Legislator
Party
State
District
P
Kathleen Kauth
NNonpartisan
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