Court upholds decision to remove candidate from ballot

By Cy Ryan

Thursday, April 15, 2010 | 3:54 p.m.

CARSON CITY – The Nevada Supreme Court, within hours of hearing oral arguments, ruled today that Las Vegas Lawyer Amber L. Candelaria should not be on the ballot for election as a justice of the peace.

The court ruled District Judge James Bixler made the right decision in removing her name from the election ballot.

The court was under a deadline to make a decision since absentee ballots must start to be printed by Friday or overtime would be required. Federal law requires that absentee ballots be mailed by April 23.

The court said it will issue a full opinion later. The order today was only 1 1/2 pages.

Candelaria was in a race with Deputy District Attorney Bernard Zadrowski, Senior Deputy Attorney General Conrad Hafen and private attorney Colby Beck. The two top vote getters in the primary election June 8 will go into the general election.

Nevada law says a lawyer must be admitted to practice law five years before his or her election to become a justice of the peace in Clark County. That is not required for persons to be elected in rural Nevada.

Candelaria got her license to practice law Oct. 17, 2006, but she paid her dues to be admitted to the Nevada Bar the previous fall.

Attorney Daniel Polsenberg, representing Candelaria, told the court the people should decide the qualifications of the justices of the peace, not the Nevada Legislature, which enacted the standard.

He said the bill approved by the Legislature was unconstitutional because it included more than one subject. He said it set the qualifications for justices of the peace and also requested the Supreme Court to conduct a study of creating an appeals court.

Polsenberg argued there was an equal protection issue. He said the Legislature set different standards for justices of the peace in urban counties as opposed to rural counties.

Zadrowski told the court the Legislature had the right to enact these qualifications. Courts in other states have upheld experience qualifications for lawyers to be judges, he said.

He argued there was a rational reason for the difference in qualifications between qualifications for lawyers in Clark and Washoe counties, and the state's rural counties. He said there are many more criminal cases for JPs to consider in urban counties.

Mary-Anne Miller, deputy district attorney in Clark County, said it was “rational” for the Legislature to set the different requirements for JPs in rural and urban counties. She said it was “not for the court to second guess the Legislature.”

A delay in printing the absentee ballot would have meant those people overseas would not get ballots in time to vote, then federal law would be violated.

Miller argued that Candelaria would be eligible to run in two years for the job.