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Supermajority Provisions, Guinn V. Legislature And A Flawed Constitutional Structure, Steve R. Johnson

Scholarly Publications

The constitutional crisis of 2003 was a defining event for Nevada and may prove instructive for the rest of the nation. Among the prominent features in the topography of the crisis were (1) state constitutional provisions that required two-thirds legislative approval for tax increases but only simple majority approval for spending increases and (2) the State Supreme Court’s decisions in Guinn v. Legislature that ended the immediate impasse. Both are focal points of continuing controversy.

Criticism of the Guinn decision has exceeded praise of it – probably in frequency, certainly in passion and rhetorical exuberance. In my view, much of …