(Sean Whaley/Nevada News Bureau ) – Nevada Supreme Court Justice Ron Parraguirre will take over as the new chief justice of the seven-member court in 2010.
The chief justice is the administrative head of the judicial branch and the public voice of the Supreme Court. The chief justice also oversees the direction of the judiciary’s activities. A majority vote of the full court, however, is required to take any major action.
Parraguirre takes over from Chief Justice James Hardesty, who served as the court’s liaison to the Nevada Legislature during the 2009 session. Hardesty won approval from the Legislature for nine new district court judges in Clark County and one in Washoe County. The cost of the new jurists will be paid for through fees rather than general fund dollars.
Hardesty also was instrumental in implementing a Foreclosure Mediation Program, at no cost to taxpayers, to assist Nevada homeowners deal with the foreclosure crisis.
“In today’s hard economic times, the court has managed to keep the wheels of justice turning and the doors open for business,” Hardesty said. “In addition to cutting the court’s budget, we reverted more than $2 million for fiscal year 2009 to the state general fund.”
Parraguirre was elected to the Supreme Court in 2004.
Both Parraguirre and Hardesty have announced they intend to seek new terms on the court in 2010.
Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, Gone Fishin’
Nevada News & Views will be taking a much-needed holiday hiatus until Monday. Merry Christmas – and do keep a good thought for our troops overseas this holdiday season.
Last Friday the FlashReport Website on California Politics closed out another great year of bringing you the latest breaking news and commentary on politics here in the Golden State. Our main page is now on hiatus until Monday, January 4th, but we’ll continue to keep an eye out for major stories and breaking news which we’ll put up on our blog, which will be up over the holidays.
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As you may have already seen, during the holidays we are featuring a great column from GOP consultant Dave Gilliard on why the so-called “open primary” measure coming to the ballot this June is very bad news — and we also have columns from our leading Republican candidates for Governor and U.S. Senate.