Stalking bill faces court fight

Anti-smoking advocates may be planning a court fight to overturn a maneuver employed against them in the closing hours of the 2009 Nevada Legislature.

Part of a pro-smoking measure that had been thought dead was extracted from that bill and inserted in an anti-stalking measure. The language basically removes the ban on smoking at conventions in Nevada. The change was approved so quickly the public had little chance to know it was happening.

Nevada’s founding fathers—they were all men—put language in the state constitution to prevent attaching non-germane “riders” to bills, as is so often done in Congress. The document says, “Each law enacted by the Legislature shall embrace but one subject … .”

American Cancer Society lobbyist Michael Hackett says everyone is resting up from the legislative session and so no decision has yet been made on whether to go to court.