Wednesday, June 10, 1998 | 2:01 a.m.
Clark County Chief District Judge Myron Leavitt today ruled unconstitutional a Republican-backed ballot initiative that would require unions to ask members for permission to spend dues on political activities.
Leavitt also ordered Secretary of State Dean Heller to strike the so-called paycheck protection initiative off the November ballot. However, Leavitt put a 30-day hold on his order for parties to file an appeal to the Nevada Supreme Court.
"The proposed initiative is unconstitutional and portions cannot be severed to cure the defect," Leavitt wrote in the order issued today on the petition filed by Nevadans for Fairness.
The group, a political action committee formed by various labor organizations and Gov. Bob Miller, asked Leavitt to stop Heller from placing the initiative on the ballot on constitutional grounds.
The order comes days before Tuesday's deadline for backers of the initiative to file their petition signatures with the Secretary of State. Nevada Republican Party Executive Director Dan Burdish said about 60,000 signatures had been gathered; 46,764 were needed to place the initiative on the ballot.
"How can you strike something from the ballot that hasn't even qualified for it?" Burdish asked.
Once a notice of intent to circulate a petition is filed with the secretary of state, anyone can raise the constitutional question before the signatures are submitted or a vote is taken, Leavitt said.
The Nevada Supreme Court made a similar ruling in 1992 against a proposed congressional term limits initiative before it was placed on a ballot.
Republican Liberty Caucus spokesman Charles Muth, who has been lead spokesman for the "workers' rights initiative," said he was certain the party would file an appeal.
"This is something we had a contingency for," Muth said.
Nevadans for Fairness sued the secretary of state to block the initiative, saying the measure would restrict union activities. Republicans and other supporters said it would give workers the right to say whether they want their union dues supporting candidates and causes they don't agree with.
The paycheck protection act has received financial backing from Sheldon Adelson, owner of the Venetian being built in place of the Sands hotel-casino.
Adelson has had a running feud with the Culinary Union since the closing of the Sands.
Union lawyers Richard McCracken and Jeremiah Collins argued last week before Leavitt that the ballot initiative was too broad and far-reaching in its language, and unconstitutionally restricted the union's right of free speech and assembly. They also said it put employers between federal labor law and state initiative -- a no-win situation that would have led to lawsuits from workers and the bargaining units.
Republican Party attorney George Chanos argued that Leavitt was being asked to disenfranchise the voters who had signed up to put the petition on the ballot, and that any problems could be corrected after the initiative was approved by voters.
Lawyers for both sides made their arguments before Leavitt last Tuesday, the same day a similar initiative, Proposition 226, was soundly rejected by California voters.
Leavitt made the distinction that California is a union shop state, where compulsory union membership is a condition for employment. Because Nevada is a right-to-work state, the state cannot impair labor contracts by "allowing employers to ignore the terms and incur no liability for doing so," Leavitt wrote.
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