Nebraska Supreme Court Online Library www.nebraska.gov/apps-courts-epub/ 06/05/2020 08:08 AM CDT -1- Nebraska Supreme Court Advance Sheets 306 Nebraska Reports E.M. v. NEBRASKA DEPT. OF HEALTH & HUMAN SERVS. Cite as 306 Neb. 1 E.M., appellant, v. Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services et al., appellees. Kevin Vasquez Perez, appellant, v. Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services et al., appellees. Walter Hernandez Marroquin, appellant, v. Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services et al., appellees. ___ N.W.2d ___ Filed June 5, 2020. Nos. S-18-1146 through S-18-1148. 1. Administrative Law: Judgments: Appeal and Error. A judgment or final order rendered by a district court in a judicial review pursuant to the Administrative Procedure Act may be reversed, vacated, or modified by an appellate court for errors appearing on the record. 2. ____: ____: ____. When reviewing an order of a district court under the Administrative Procedure Act for errors appearing on the record, the inquiry is whether the decision conforms to the law, is supported by com- petent evidence, and is neither arbitrary, capricious, nor unreasonable. 3. Administrative Law: Judgments. Whether an agency decision con- forms to the law is by definition a question of law. 4. Administrative Law: Statutes: Appeal and Error. The meaning and interpretation of statutes and regulations are questions of law for which an appellate court has an obligation to reach an independent conclusion irrespective of the decision made by the court below. 5. Administrative Law: Appeal and Error. An issue that has not been presented in the petition for judicial review has not been properly pre- served for consideration by the district court. 6. Appeal and Error. An appellate court will not consider an issue on appeal that was not passed upon by the trial court. -2- Nebraska Supreme Court Advance Sheets 306 Nebraska Reports E.M. v. NEBRASKA DEPT. OF HEALTH & HUMAN SERVS. Cite as 306 Neb. 1 7. Statutes: Legislature: Presumptions: Judicial Construction. In deter- mining the meaning of a statute, the applicable rule is that when the Legislature enacts a law affecting an area which is already the subject of other statutes, it is presumed that it did so with full knowledge of the preexisting legislation and the decisions of the Nebraska Supreme Court construing and applying that legislation. 8. Statutes. Statutory language is to be given its plain and ordinary meaning. 9. Public Assistance: Words and Phrases. For the purposes of state or local public benefits eligibility under Neb. Rev. Stat. § 4-108 (Reissue 2012), “lawfully present” means the alien classifications under 8 U.S.C. § 1621(a)(1), (2), and (3) (2012). 10. Public Assistance: Legislature. In order to affirmatively provide a state public benefit to aliens not lawfully present in the United States, as authorized by 8 U.S.C. § 1621(d) (2012), the Legislature must make a positive or express statement extending eligibility by reference to immi- gration status. 11. Constitutional Law: Federal Acts: States. Under the Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution, state law that conflicts with federal law is invalid. 12. ...
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Source: All recent Immigration Decisions In All the U.S. Courts of Appeals