Nevada proposal would kill law allowing communists to be fired

CARSON CITY - Nevada employers no longer would be permitted to fire employees they suspect are communists if the 2013 Legislature approves a soon-to-be drafted bill.

Members of the Legislative Commission agreed Wednesday to draw up four bills to repeal obsolete and unenforced state laws, including one that allows employers to reject applications from communists and fire any communists on their staff.

Legislative Research Analyst Scott Young said he could not find records of anyone being fired in Nevada under the law. But he said that Nevada has been a right-to-work state since the 1950s, so employers don't have to provide a reason for firing people.

Young called the law a "relic from the Cold War"' that has not been enforced because of U.S. Supreme Court decisions and the repeal of federal anti-communist laws.

The state law was passed after Congress approved a bill sponsored by U.S. Sen. Patrick McCarran, D-Nev., that created the federal Subversive Activity Control Board in 1950.

The board had the power to call possible communists as witnesses and order the registration of communist front organizations. Communists could be required to register with the U.S. attorney general under the law.

Presidents Dwight D. Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson appointed members to the board before it was abolished.

But the registration requirements were repealed by Congress in 1968, and the board was abolished in 1972 after U.S. Supreme Court decisions finding parts of the law unconstitutional.

The state law allowed employers to fire or refuse to hire possible communists if the Subversive Activity Control Board had determined they were members of communist front or action groups.

During the meeting, members of the Legislative Commission also agreed to draw up other bills:

■ To repeal laws passed in 1911 and 1913 that require train engineers to be able to read and specify job positions required for each train.

■ To repeal a 1951 law that allows Nevada to have a representative on the Columbian Basin Interstate Compact. The compact never was approved by states in the West.

■ To repeal 1975 and 1983 laws that spelled out ways to provide financial assistance to businesses "creating economic prosperity" for the state. No applications have been filed for aid under these laws in 11 years.

Contact Capital Bureau Chief Ed Vogel at evogel@reviewjournal.com or 775-687-3901.