Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

State senator’s resignation doesn’t keep conservatives from pursuing lawsuit

Mo Denis

Mo Denis

A conservative think tank is moving forward with its challenge of the legality of a public employee serving in the Legislature, even though the state senator and target of the lawsuit has resigned from his state job.

The Nevada Policy Research Institute filed a brief Monday asking the court to deny state Sen. Mo Denis’ motion to dismiss the case because he quit his job as computer technician at the Nevada Public Utilities Commission.

NPRI argued that the court should still rule on the case because of its “widespread importance” and “substantial public interest.”

Conservatives have maintained that public employees serving in the Legislature presents an inherent conflict of interest; school teachers and local government employees would have an inherent bias on issues like taxes and union bargaining rules, because of their day jobs.

Eight out of the 10 public employees who served in the 2011 Legislature were Democrats.

The motion said that the Nevada Constitution clearly states the three branches of government must remain separate.

“It is difficult to imagine a case with a more fundamental and ‘public’ legal issue,” NPRI said in the motion. “This case potentially resolves, in part, the important state constitutional question of certain qualifications as to who may hold public employment and/or public office in each of the three branches of the Nevada state government.”

Public employees have maintained that in Nevada, where the 63 lawmakers are part-time, conflicts of interest are inherent in the system, and private sector employees have just as many potential conflicts as public sector workers.

Denis, D-Las Vegas, presented the ripest target for a lawsuit challenging the law, because he was the only one to work directly for the state’s executive branch. But he resigned his post in December, after the lawsuit was filed.

Denis maintained that he had been looking for a job in the private sector to give him more time to deal with Legislative business well before NPRI filed its lawsuits. Other sources close to Denis confirmed that he had been looking for private sector employment.

Denis, reached by phone on Tuesday, said he had not seen the complaint yet. He noted his attorney filed a motion to dismiss in December, and NPRI appeared to send the complaint to the press before notifying him or his lawyers.

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