LETTER: Nevada’s executive branch now owns the legislative branch

The Review-Journal’s Sept. 9 editorial, “Civil forfeiture horror story shows need for reform,” is another in a long line of editorials seeking to end the abuse of government power embedded in civil forfeiture. Unfortunately any hope of ending civil forfeiture here in Nevada is a pure pipe dream.

With government employees sitting in the Legislature holding powerful positions as committee chairs — as well as speaker of the Assembly and an assistant district attorney as majority leader of the Senate — the Institute for Justice’s “Policing for Profit” will remain alive and well in Nevada.

The cold brutal fact is the legislative branch of Nevada government is now the private property of the executive branch.

Only our Supreme Court stands in the way of executive branch ownership of the Legislature in perpetuity. If the court looks at the state Constitution the way it did when rejecting the Humpty Dumpty “it all depends” nonsense that was thrown in its face by those trying to justify their right to raise taxes without the two-thirds majority vote, it will be a landmark decision.

It will bring back to life the now-obsolete core principle of our system of representative government: the separation of powers doctrine.