Introduction
Two months before Election Day, the Nevada Supreme Court ordered the “regulatory takings” portions of Question 2 to be stripped from the ballot initiative that will go before voters.
In its September 8 decision in Nevadans for the Protection of Property Rights v. Heller*, the court held that the initiative, which also aims to restrict the use of eminent domain, violated a state law that requires such measures to deal with a single subject. As a result, Nevada voters who go to the polls on November 7 will not pass judgment on a proposal to give property owners the right to seek compensation for any regulatory action that diminishes the value of their land.
The decision allows some of the provisions that deal with eminent domain to go before voters, although two of the court’s seven justices argued in a partial dissent that the entire measure should be thrown off the ballot. Under Nevada law, the proposed constitutional amendment, as modified, must receive a majority of votes in November and again in 2008 to be enacted.
The anti-takings forces can try to get their issue on the ballot again in 2008, but the soonest it could be enacted would be 2010.
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