WEEKLY EDITORIAL RECAP
WEDNESDAY
LAST JUSTICE STANDING
Are Nevada voters still furious about the travesty of Guinn v. Legislature? We might find out this fall.
In that 2003 decision, perhaps the most politicized and legally unsound ruling ever issued by the Nevada Supreme Court, justices held 6-1 that the Legislature could ignore a voter-approved constitutional amendment which required a two-thirds majority to raise taxes. ...
Only one of the justices who supported the Guinn v. Legislature debacle remains on the bench. And on Monday, Mark Gibbons filed the paperwork to seek a second term. ...
Justice Gibbons has acknowledged that Guinn v. Legislature was a mistake. On more than one occasion, he has expressed regret over his vote. And in 2006, he sided with the majority to reverse the ruling, although that repudiation was used to kill the Tax and Spending Control initiative, another attempt to limit government power.
A cynic might wonder why, if Justice Gibbons believes Guinn v. Legislature was an abomination, he and his colleagues allowed the "retired" Deborah Agosti and Miriam Shearing [who voted with Justice Gibbons, then quit rather than stand for re-election] to be commissioned as senior justices on the court.
We'll leave such a query for his opponent -- if one materializes. Justice Gibbons isn't aware of anyone planning to challenge him.
