CARSON CITY — The Nevada Supreme Court Friday put the brakes on a law that would impose new registration requirements on sex offenders and subject thousands of them to community notification.
The order signed by Justices Michael Douglas, Michael Cherry and Mark Gibbons temporarily halts the Department of Public Safety from implementing the law and posting thousands of sex offender names and addressed online.
The stay was issued the same day state officials said they would begin enforcing the law initially passed by the Nevada Legislature in 2007 but never implemented because of legal challenges.
A Clark County judge on Thursday denied an emergency motion filed on behalf of 17 unnamed plaintiffs seeking to stop the law. Attorneys then filed an emergency writ late Thursday with the Nevada Supreme Court.
“Given the time constraints and the assertions in the petition, we conclude that a temporary stay of enforcement of AB579 is warranted to maintain the status quo while this court considers the petition and supporting documents,” justices wrote in the brief order Friday.
The Department of Safety Director “hopes no one was harmed” during the 4 1/2 hrs that the expanded list was available for public viewing.
Isn’t that considerate! We’re talking about people lives here. This isn’t a case of “too bad, so sad”, or “oops we made a mistake”. People can lose lives, jobs, families and homes because someone with an itchy trigger finger couldn’t wait to “get the list out there.” It’s a sad situation and I hope that anyone who was harmed because of the published list, seeks lawful recovery of damages.
well it looks to me the Clark County Judge obviously didn’t do his job responsibly. It had to go to the state level to get it taken care of. Congratulations to everyone fighting in Nevada and thank God for the common sense of the Nevada Justices….the county judge should be barred for using such flawed judgement
Great!!!!-!!!!!!!