Court Opinion

ID: 9776193
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 19:23:09.505607+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:32:35.654345
License: Public Domain

Cherry, J.,
dissenting:
I join in the dissent issued by Chief Justice Douglas and Justice Pickering. In addition, I feel compelled to share my own thoughts on this unique matter. I hold our district judges of the family division in Clark and Washoe Counties in the highest regard and utmost esteem. These “work horses” have served our urban counties well since the creation of the family division in 1993. I was most satisfied with our previous decision in this matter and felt a rehearing was unnecessary. I did not feel that our previous decision relegated those dedicated jurists to an inferior position to our general jurisdiction judges in Clark and Washoe Counties, or our rural judges who have the onerous task of hearing civil, criminal, and family law cases.
What is clear to me from a reading of our constitution in Article 6, Section 6(2) is that the Legislature may provide by law for the establishment of a family court as a division of any district court and may prescribe its jurisdiction. The creation of said family court has been accomplished in our urban counties and the Legislature has, in fact, prescribed its jurisdiction. NRS 3.223.
The majority now invites these specially trained jurists of the family division to abandon their specialty in family matters and instead try capital murder cases, construction defect cases, and business court cases. To me, this is not what the public intended when the Constitution was amended to create a family division, nor does it serve the public’s interest. Almost as important is that the majority misreads and misapplies the legislative history in creating the family division and holds that our Legislature does not have the *196constitutional aúthority to limit the jurisdiction of judges in the family division, even though there is no ambiguity whatsoever in Article 6, Section 6(2) of the Nevada Constitution.
For the above reasons, I respectfully dissent from the majority opinion in this matter.