By the end of 2021, Nevada’s incarcerated population reached its lowest level in two decades at less than 10,400 people, down from a recent peak of more than 14,000 in 2016, according to data published by the Nevada Department of Sentencing Policy. 

The discussion item, listed on the board's agenda, comes after attempts to abolish the death penalty through the legislative process in 2021 failed. At the time, Sisolak announced there was “no path forward.”

Last year, Justice James Hardesty empaneled a commission of water officials and District Court judges to study how cases are moving through the legal system. We spoke to Hardesty about the commission’s progress and the judiciary’s role in hearing water disputes.

The Nevada Supreme Court ruled on three major election cases Tuesday that reshape the November ballot, allowing an initiative proposing open primaries and ranked-choice voting to proceed while voiding another measure proposing a voucher-style education program.

The Nevada Supreme Court issued a ruling in a major water case, an opinion that the court’s majority recognized “will significantly affect water management in Nevada.”

On Wednesday, attorneys representing Helton and Nevada Voters First, the group backing the so-called “Better Voting Nevada” initiative, made their final pitches to the court in oral arguments before the justices.

An attorney for former gaming mogul Steve Wynn told the Nevada Supreme Court Monday the disgraced casino operator can’t be held accountable by gaming regulators for any of the alleged sexual misconduct and harassment allegations that led to his departure from Wynn Resorts in 2018.

Through the 2021 fiscal year that ended in June, the court’s backlog fell to 1,176 cases, down from 1,688 pending cases at the same point in time last year.

Nevada Supreme Court Chief Justice James Hardesty plans to leave the job at the end of his term in 2022, saying it had been an “unimaginable honor and distinct privilege” to serve over the past 24 years.

The state Supreme Court Thursday upheld a 15-vote victory last November by now-Clark County Commissioner Ross Miller, denying the legal challenge by former Las Vegas City Councilman Stavros Anthony, who was seeking a new election.

Justices made no ruling on Monday, but beyond the constitutional questions, a decision to uphold the district court’s ruling last September in favor of Senate Republicans could have major implications for lawmakers crafting the state budget this session. The extended payroll tax rate being challenged in the lawsuit brings in tens of millions of dollars in state tax revenue — meaning legislators could soon be facing a large budget hole with just weeks left in the session.

The state Supreme Court heard oral arguments Wednesday morning in a months-long case over an exceptionally close Clark County Commission race, with lawyers arguing whether discrepancies in the voting process met the definition of an election being “prevented.”

This week’s Indy Environment newsletter looks at two federal water infrastructure projects that illustrate the complex puzzle involved in improving “efficiency.”

Proposed legislation could exempt certain pre-decisional meetings and records that involve environmental issues from the Open Meeting Law and the Public Records Act. Looming over that bill is a little-discussed confidentiality clause that the federal government requires.

Last week, a state water official sent a letter to the chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee backing away from a proposal to give the Court of Appeals original jurisdiction over water cases. As the state moves away from the proposal, Supreme Court Chief Justice James Hardesty said that he plans to look for ways to bring more water law expertise to the judiciary.

The three page order states that the Trump campaign failed to identify any direct “unsupported factual findings” in Russell’s order that it wished to challenge under the appeal, and the court itself has “identified none.”

The Nevada Supreme Court accepted the results of the 2020 general election on Tuesday, making official the results of a contentious election that has sparked numerous legal challenges seeking to cast doubt on the integrity of the electoral process in the Silver State.

So far, the PAC has started a TV advertising campaign aimed at boosting the candidacy of state Supreme Court candidate Douglas Herndon, an Eighth Judicial District Court judge running against Democratic Assemblyman and attorney Ozzie Fumo for the open seat on the seven-member court. Herndon’s political affiliation is described as “Republican” by the Reno Gazette-Journal.

The Nevada Supreme Court ruled Thursday that the state cannot reshuffle existing water rights to prevent environmental damage, despite recognizing a legal principle that requires the government to preserve natural resources for future generations.

But as a five-month-old, statewide moratorium on evictions is set to end on Tuesday, group members are finding they’re short on answers for the anxious people reaching out to them with questions. A federally funded rental assistance program is, at least for now, not taking any additional applications in Clark County as it works through a backlog, and officials with the Supreme Court say a tenant mediation program recently approved by the Legislature may not be up and running until late October.