The Nevada Supreme Court will hear State v Nevada Republican Party on June 28. This is the lawsuit over whether the upcoming special U.S. House election will be a partisan election or not. The lower court interpreted state law to mean that it should be a partisan election, in which parties nominate candidates. The fact that the court set a hearing in June probably means that the election will proceed on September 13. The seat is vacant because Congressman Dean Heller was appointed to the U.S. Senate a few weeks ago. The seat is the northern Nevada seat, centered on Reno.

So far, fifteen Republicans, eight Democrats, one member of the Independent American Party, and five independents have announced that they will run. However, because there are no primaries in special U.S. House elections in Nevada (both sides agree on that), if the State Supreme Court upholds the ruling of the lower court, party meetings will choose one nominee, and most of those Republican and Democratic candidates won’t be able to run. The independents will be able to run if they submit 100 valid signatures. If the Supreme Court reverses the lower court, then all those candidates will run on a single ballot and there will be no runoff.