On May 23, a Nevada state court in Carson City issued this 12-page decision in Nevada Republican Party v State, 11-oc-00147. This is the lawsuit over how to interpret Nevada’s law governing special elections for U.S. House. Last week the court had ruled orally that parties may nominate by convention or party meeting. The Secretary of State had earlier ruled that parties may not nominate candidates in special elections for this office, and that any individual may run. The Republican Party had then sued to overturn that ruling, because there is no run-off and the Republican Party was afraid there would be multiple Republicans running and perhaps only a single Democrat.

The Secretary of State, and the Democratic Party, had already announced an appeal to the Nevada Supreme Court even before this written opinion was issued. The written opinion points out that under the Secretary of State’s ruling, the Democratic and Republican Parties would have no ability to nominate candidates, but the state’s two qualified minor parties would have an ability to designate only one person to use that party’s label.