Las Vegas Sun

November 27, 2009

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Letter: Lawyers should be banned from state Legislature

Wednesday, Nov. 5, 2003 | 8:41 a.m.

In his Sunday opinion column, Knight Allen quoted the Nevada Constitution: "... no person charged with the exercise of powers properly belonging to one of these departments (legislative, executive, or judicial) shall exercise any functions, appertaining to either of the others ... "

Allen then says this excludes public employees from serving in the Legislature. I cannot see how this eliminates a secretary or a professor from serving. There is no "exercise of power" by these public employees. At their workplaces, they are not legislators or judges or part of the executive branch.

On the other hand, it is fairly obvious that there is a conflict of interest when lawyers serve in the Legislature. Lawyers are an integral part of the judiciary. When they serve in the Legislature, they clearly violate the above principle.

Nevada's citizens' Legislature needs representation from as many segments of the population as possible, public employees included. But if we are going to try to eliminate some groups from our Legislature, let's start with the lawyers.

PAUL AIZLEY

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