Friday, April 09, 2004
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

EDITORIAL: 'Serious threat'

The controversial Guinn v. Legislature decision -- in which six state Supreme Court justices, led by Deborah Agosti, demolished the integrity of the Nevada Constitution -- has attracted attention from an unlikely source.

A recent article in the prestigious Harvard Law Review attacks the ruling, which gave Nevada lawmakers the green light to ignore a constitutionally mandated supermajority requirement for tax increases.

The article argues that the high court "misapplied its own rules for interpreting conflicting constitutional requirements" and "its canon that the specific governs the general." Guinn v. Legislature, the article concludes, "poses a serious threat to the separation of powers."

None of this is news to the many Nevadans who voted to add the supermajority handcuff to the state constitution. But it's a clear indication of just how far afield the Nevada Supreme Court wandered that Guinn v. Legislature would warrant critical examination in the Harvard Law Review -- not exactly a bastion of conservative or libertarian jurisprudence.