Editorial: A milestone for Douglas and Nevada

Tuesday, March 30, 2004 | 8:57 a.m.

Chief District Judge Michael Douglas will have the honor of becoming the first black member of the Nevada Supreme Court since the state came into being 140 years ago. Douglas was appointed by Gov. Kenny Guinn last week to succeed Justice Myron Leavitt, who died in January.

During his 22 years in Las Vegas, Douglas has worked hard to earn this prestigious and historic appointment. A graduate of the University of California's Hastings College of Law in San Francisco, Douglas moved to Las Vegas in 1982. He served as a staff attorney for two years with Nevada Legal Services, which provides advice and counsel to low-income residents. For the next 11 years he served as a Clark County deputy district attorney, often providing legal advice to the County Commission. He was elected as a Clark County district judge in 1996 and currently serves as chief judge of the District Court. He will be sworn in as a Supreme Court justice on May 3.

Douglas has an outstanding reputation in Southern Nevada. Those appearing before him in District Court find him polite, fair-minded and highly knowledgeable of the law. In appointing Douglas, Guinn said he is "a man of great intellect with all of the positive character traits that have always distinguished the great justices of our state."

It's of great significance that a black person will soon sit on the Nevada Supreme Court. This is a welcome milestone that we see leading to greater diversity in the upper ranks of all state government service. We congratulate Douglas, however, not just for his appointment to the highest court in the state, but as well for his dedicated and professional service to Southern Nevada that led to it.