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Friday, Aug. 13, 2010 | 1:50 a.m.
CARSON CITY – A judge can't put a campaign sign on his property backing a political candidate, a judicial ethics panel says.
The Standing Committee on Judicial Ethics and Election Practices also says in another advisory opinion that a judge can't help a city draft a ballot advisory question on a tax increase.
A justice of the peace asked the committee whether he could display a sign supporting another candidate for public office on his property.
The committee, in an opinion signed by Vice Chairman Michael Pagni, said displaying a candidate's sign at the judge’s home or on property readily identified as being owned by the judge would "constitute an impermissible endorsement of candidates for public office," and is prohibited by the Code of Judicial Conduct.
In the second opinion, a justice of the peace asked whether it is permissible to help a committee draft an advisory city ballot question on a tax increase. The judge said the committee was taking no position on the issue.
Pagni wrote in the second opinion the judge can't take part in drafting the question if the tax increase is not for the judicial system. The committee also noted that a judge involved in helping to draft the language could be asked to make a legal ruling on the appropriateness of the language.
The committee also issued a third advisory opinion that a judge may conduct a settlement conference or mediation if asked by another judge, but is prohibited from taking cases from independent private mediation services.
The names of the judges involved weren't released.
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Where is this alleged "ethics panel" when JUDGES solicit contributions from LAWYERS who inevitably appear before them in their COURT???
How can jurisprudence ever be served in Nevada when lawyers are EXPECTED to pay "grease money" to help these so-called "arbiters of justice" keep their cushy gigs???
It's just plain WRONG.
Do your homework, Sun!
A justice of the peace is NOT a judge. Except in Vegas one doesn't even have to be a member of the Bar to be a justice.
"The question arises ... whether all lawyers are the same. This is like asking whether everything that gets into a sewer is garbage." -- Florynce R. Kennedy, attorney and civil rights activist, from her essay "The Whorehouse Theory of Law"
@KillerB,
Do your own homework. NRS 4.010 sets out the qualifications to be a Justice of the Peace. You have to have been an attorney for 5 years before being elected or appointed.
these signs should be banned period. im sick of seeing them littering the sides of all of our highways and seeing sharron angles ugly face every 15 feet, or uncle harrys old mug every 12 feet. its annoying and makes our streets look trashed. they should be limited to billboards existing only and nothing more. they are on TV enough as it is every other commercial...literally.
here is a tv show....now commercial time....sony, angle, dell, harry, angle, febreeze, harry, tv show ad, angle. 50% at the minimum i see these fools on my TV screen. i almost rather watch that progressive flo wench
Allen -- actually we're both right:
NRS 4.010 Qualifications of justice of the peace.
1. A person may not be a candidate for or be eligible to the office of justice of the peace unless the person is a qualified elector and has never been removed or retired from any judicial office by the Commission on Judicial Discipline. For the purposes of this subsection, a person is eligible to be a candidate for the office of justice of the peace if a decision to remove or retire the person from a judicial office is pending appeal before the Supreme Court or has been overturned by the Supreme Court.
2. A justice of the peace must have a high school diploma or its equivalent as determined by the State Board of Education and:
(a) In a county whose population is 400,000 or more, a justice of the peace in a township whose population is 100,000 or more must be an attorney who is licensed and admitted to practice law in the courts of this State at the time of his or her election or appointment and has been licensed and admitted to practice law in the courts of this State, another state or the District of Columbia for not less than 5 years at any time preceding his or her election or appointment.
(b) In a county whose population is less than 400,000, a justice of the peace in a township whose population is 250,000 or more must be an attorney who is licensed and admitted to practice law in the courts of this State at the time of his or her election or appointment and has been licensed and admitted to practice law in the courts of this State, another state or the District of Columbia for not less than 5 years at any time preceding his or her election or appointment.
3. Subsection 2 does not apply to any person who held the office of justice of the peace on June 30, 2001.
==============
So if the township has a population of under 250,000 -- which applies to much of this state -- no Bar card needed.
"The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers." -- Dick the Butcher in Shakespeare's "Henry The Sixth," Part 2 Act 4, scene 2