Real Estate & Property Law

Latest Briefs In SCOTUS Ethics Case: Do Elected Officials With Conflicts Of Interest Have A Right To Vote Anyway?

By Robert Thomas (inversecondemnation.com)

In Comm'n on Ethics of the State of Nevada v. Carrigan, No. 10-568 (cert. granted Jan 7, 2011), the U.S. Supreme Court is considering whether a state statute which requires elected officials to recuse themselves from considering matters on which they appear to have conflicts of interest impermissibly infringes upon a city councilman's First Amendment rights.

In that case, the Nevada Supreme Court invalidated a Nevada law which required a Sparks, Nevada city councilmember to recuse himself from considering an application to develop a hotel/casino because the developer's "consultant" was a "longtime professional and personal friend" of the councilmember, and had been his campaign manager. We've been following the case closely, since the Court's decision could have a broad impact on the land use process and the ground rules for conflicts of interest in development and other applications at the state and local levels.

We posted the cert petition and a summary of the case here. Here are the latest briefs:

• Brief of the Petitioner Nevada Commission on Ethics

• Amicus Brief by 14 States in Support of Petitioner

• Amicus Brief for Public Citizen, Inc. in Support of Petitioner

• Amicus Brief for the Nevada Legislature in Support of Reversal

• Amicus Brief for the Reporter's Committee for Freedom of the Press, the Student Press Law Center and 14 Other News Organizations in Support of Petitioner

The councilman has not filed his brief yet, but we'll post it when he does. The case is set for oral argument on April 27, 2011 (the Nevada Legislature has asked the Court to participate in oral argument).

We're in the finishing stages of an article on the case, and will post that when it's published shortly. Stay tuned.

Full post as published by inversecondemnation on March 25, 2011 (boomark / email).