State Senator Ernie Chambers blasted a Lancaster County judge on Wednesday for vacating an order calling for a grand jury investigation of University of Nebraska Regent David Hergert.

Chambers of Omaha lashed out at District Judge Steven Burns, who late Tuesday issued a statement saying: "The order to convene a grand jury has been vacated."

"The man is a dunce," Chambers said on the floor of the Legislature.

Attorney General Jon Bruning asked for the grand jury to look into possible criminal violations by Hergert of the state's campaign finance laws.

Burns' statement went no further, and he was not available to comment.

His staff said it was unlikely that the full order vacating the grand jury would be made public.

Chambers said Burns' ruling should be made public.

"When a judge behaves in the way that Steven Burns has behaved, it casts a cloud over the system -- over the judiciary itself," he said. "Secrecy, where there ought to be openness, generates and spawns speculation.

"What he is doing has the stench of star-chamber proceedings in a kangaroo court presided over by a kangaroo judge," Chambers said.