Opinion ID: 1205480
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: necessity, bases and authority for issuing this supplemental opinion

Text: This supplemental opinion, born of necessity, and entirely unique in nature, is reluctantly issued in an effort to preserve the rule of law and respect for law in the State of Nevada. The necessity for this two-justice supplemental opinion cannot be understood or respected without a full disclosure of the circumstances underlying its issuance. The panel of this court that has had, and continues to have, lawful jurisdiction over Case No. 24598 (the Whitehead case) was, and is, in every respect the Supreme Court of the State of Nevada insofar as that case is concerned. The Whitehead court presently consists of a majority (three) of the elected members of the Nevada Supreme Court, Chief Justice Steffen, Justice Springer and Justice Shearing. Senior Justice Zenoff was appointed to sit on the Whitehead case in the place of then-Chief Justice Rose by Justice Steffen pursuant to Art. 6,  19 of the Nevada Constitution, and Supreme Court Rule 10. The other member of the Whitehead court during most of its tortured history and until ill health and retirement from judicial office forced his resignation from the court, was District Court Judge Addeliar Guy, who was appointed by the governor as requested by then-Chief Justice Rose pursuant to Art. 6,  4 of the Nevada Constitution. After Justices Shearing, Rose and Young issued an administrative order rescinding the appointment of a special master by the Whitehead court, and thereafter sought, by administrative order, to terminate the Whitehead panel, the Whitehead court was forced to issue its opinion in Whitehead v. Commission on Judicial Discipline, 111 Nev. 1459, 908 P.2d 219 (1995) ( Whitehead V, ) declaring the administrative order and intended termination of the Whitehead panel illegal and void. Whitehead V fully explains the actions of the three justices which forced the issuance of the latter opinion. On December 20, 1995, Chief Justice Steffen submitted a letter to Governor Miller requesting that he appoint replacement judges for District Judge Addeliar Guy, who was retiring, and Sr. Justice Zenoff, who had family illnesses and had requested that he be replaced on the Whitehead panel. See Exhibit A. On December 21, 1995, Attorney General Frankie Sue Del Papa filed an original writ petition with the Nevada Supreme Court naming Whitehead court justices Steffen, Springer and Zenoff as respondents, along with the special master appointed in the Whitehead case. The dissenting justice in the Whitehead case was not named, nor, of course, were the two disqualified justices, Rose and Young. As elucidated in the body of this opinion, the purpose of the attorney general's writ petition in Case No. 27847 was to accomplish an overruling of certain final rulings in Case No. 24598 (the Whitehead case) through means of the dissenting Justice Shearing and the disqualified Justices Rose and Young. After the attorney general filed her petition in Case No. 27847, and for a period of eight days, the governor, who has invariably and routinely issued commissions to substitute judges as requested by the chief justice with dispatch, had taken no action on Chief Justice Steffen's request for the two replacement judges on the Whitehead panel. We soon learned why after receiving a copy of a filed Order signed by Justices Shearing, Rose and Young purporting to require a majority of the elected members of this court to approve in writing any assignment of other judges to sit on any Supreme Court cases, including, specifically, the signing of any request to the governor for issuance of special commissions to any senior or retired district court judges to sit on our court. See Exhibit B. This Order was an obvious device for preventing the naming of additional judges to serve on the Whitehead panel. Due to the continuing lack of response from the governor concerning the December 20, 1995 letter requesting his appointment of the substitute jurists, Chief Justice Steffen again wrote the governor on January 10, 1996, asking that he honor the request of the former letter. See Exhibit C. Thereafter, on January 12, 1996, the governor responded by letter declining to appoint substitute judges without a request by a majority of the elected members of the court as specified in the Order issued by Justices Shearing, Rose and Young on December 28, 1995. See Exhibit D. The governor's letter of January 12 prompted a request for reconsideration to the governor dated January 16, 1996, signed by Chief Justice Steffen and Justice Springer. See Exhibit E. The governor again denied the request by letter dated January 29, 1996. See Exhibit F. After disabling the Whitehead court, the dissenting Justice Shearing, and the two disqualified justices Rose and Young, then issued an opinion in Case No. 27847 purporting to declare certain final rulings of the Whitehead court in Case No. 24598 illegal and void. It also issued a writ of prohibition against the Whitehead panel of the Nevada Supreme Court purporting to prevent the Whitehead court from continuing with an investigation of serious contempts of this court by the special master. At this point, the dissenting justice and the two disqualified justices, each of whom had incentives for attempting to overrule final decisions in the Whitehead case, must have concluded that they had achieved checkmate. Indeed, if honor and respect for the rule of law and judicial ethics would allow, we simply would have permitted the three justices to bring this unfortunate matter to a dishonorable close in the hope that time might heal the gangrenous wounds to Nevada's judicial system. Another complication surfaced in this tortured case when Senior Justice Zenoff, who is still a member of the Whitehead court, but who has, as noted above, asked to be relieved of further duty in the Whitehead case, declined to participate further in the case. We, of course, have no alternative other than to respect his position. The distillate of the above recitals is that there are two functioning members of the Whitehead court remaining, the Whitehead case has not been finalized, and the dissenting justice, the two disqualified justices, and the governor have combined to prevent the appointment of substitute judges on the Whitehead court. Moreover, as discussed above, the attorney general, who was also strongly implicated as one of the subjects of the special master's investigation, has combined with the dissenting justice and two disqualified justices in Case No. 24598 in order to effectuate reversals of final rulings in Whitehead through what purports to be a separate writ proceeding in Case No. 27847. To the credit of our sister jurisdictions throughout this nation, we have been unable to find any historical parallel to what has occurred here in any other jurisdiction. The above recitals will hopefully explain the necessity and bases for this Supplemental Opinion in Case No. 24598. We will now turn to the authority for issuing this opinion.