Election season always brings a number of interesting and fast-tracked cases before the our state's high court. This year is no exeption.
Just take a look as what is scheduled for June 13. That day wiil be particularly busy for the Nevada Supreme court, with several high profile hearings scheduled at the Supreme Court Courtroom in Las Vegas, on the 17th floor of the Regional Justice center.
The morning will be devoted to oral arguments before the full court.
At 10 a.m., the court will hear argument in the case of the Independent American party of Clark County vs. Secretary of State Ross Miller, involving term of office issue. See briefs here.
At 10:30 a.m., the Court will hear Judge Halverson’s challenge to Legislature’s right to create judgeships with shorter terms, which was done to place all judges on the same election and pay raise cycle. See briefs here. (By the way, I’m happy to see that the AG’s response did offer rebuttal to the merits of Halverson’s constitutional challenge, unlike that of the registrar’s.)
At 11 am the Court will hear the challenge to the candidacy of Michael Montero for a seat on the Sixth Judicial District Court bench. Montero resides outside the district, and the issue is whether, candidates need not be residents of their district to file for office. See briefs here.
Then, at 1:30 p.m., the Court will hold an unprecedented case management hearing to determine certain other ballot issues, including the last minute challenges to term limits and tax initiatives. The cases in which the hearing was ordered include LV Convention v. Miller/County of Clark v. School Funding Solutions; Nevadans for Nevada v. Martin ; We the People Nevada v. Miller (51735). Click on the links for each case for briefing.
A statement from the Chief Justice Mark Gibbons explains:
The Court will determine how best to address the cases so they can be resolved as quickly as possible. The Court must be responsive to the public’s needs, but must also provide opportunities for all parties to file necessary briefs and for our court staff to conduct the necessary research.
Some cases will have common issues, but others are unique. The Supreme Court is being asked to compress its procedures into very short time frames to accommodate the election cycle and the needs of counties to have absentee ballots printed and mailed in a timely fashion.”
At this point, we don’t know which cases must be decided before the Primary Election and which do not need to be addressed until the General Election. We do not know if the Court can appropriately address all matters in the brief time available, but I can guarantee the Justices will work as hard as they can to meet the needs of the litigants and the public. It is vital, however, that the litigants are afforded due process and that the Court’s decisions ultimately are correct.
The Chief Justice promises, “While we will give these cases priority, we will not take shortcuts and issue opinions that are not well reasoned and supported by the law and the Constitution.”
I have to give credit to our court. Despite the volume of cases they already handle, they make the time to fit these time sensitive matters in. The compesses schedules place a burden on the attorneys who have to brief the issues, but also on the justices who must decide the matters
