Editorial: High court vacancy

Openings on the Nevada Supreme Court are relatively rare, as are contested elections. In November, two of the seven justices are up for re-election, but neither drew an opponent. The same is true for the newly created state Court of Appeals. Its three inaugural members must face the voters this fall, yet — again — none has any opposition.

But that doesn’t mean there won’t be any turnover at the highest levels of the state judiciary. On Monday, high court Justice Nancy Saitta unexpectedly announced her retirement, more than two years before her current term expires.

Justice Saitta began her judicial career two decades ago when she was appointed to Las Vegas Municipal Court in 1996. Two years later she successfully ran for the District Court bench, where she served for eight years, specializing in construction defect cases.

In 2006, voters elevated her to the state Supreme Court when she easily defeated incumbent Nancy Becker by 9 percentage points. Justice Becker had been among the majority in the abysmal — and later repudiated — Guinn v. Legislature decision, voting to allow lawmakers to circumvent the state constitution in their effort to impose higher taxes.

Justice Saitta, a graduate of the law school at Wayne State University in Detroit, received relatively modest grades for her performance in the Review-Journal’s biennial Judging the Judges survey. In the 2012 survey, the last conducted, 56 percent of attorneys responding recommended she be retained by voters, up from just 45 percent in 2008 and 50 percent in 2010.

Justice Saitta took the results with grace. “I find the criticism helpful,” she told the newspaper. “All of us take what is said about us seriously. I’m happy to have improved.”

She faced no opposition in her 2012 re-election bid.

Justice Saitta explained she decided to step down because “it is time to move on to the next chapter.” But it would remiss not to note that her retirement comes just a few months after a Review-Journal story revealed that a sworn deposition alleges that in 2008 she compromised an FBI investigation into construction defect fraud by tipping off the Las Vegas target of an agency raid.

Justice Saitta vehemently denies the allegation.

The Nevada Commission on Judicial Selection will now recommend three candidates to fill out the remainder of Justice Saitta’s term. They will forward the finalists to Gov. Brian Sandoval, who will make a selection in the coming months.

The commission and governor should seek an experienced jurist with unquestioned integrity, a sharp legal mind and a healthy respect for both the state and federal constitutions. The top candidate will apply the applicable law to the facts at hand, rather than work backward from a desired outcome resulting from personal policy preferences.

The high court in recent years has made strides in overcoming an unfortunate perception that cronyism, patronage and juice too often influence how the justices conduct business. The governor has the opportunity here to further erode that impression.