Heller v. Give Nevada A Raise, Inc., 120 Nev. 481

Summary

The Nevada Supreme Court held that Article 19, Section 3(1) of the Nevada Constitution, requiring each initiative-petition document to include an affidavit from a signing registered voter, severely burdened political speech protected by the First Amendment. The court concluded that the affidavit requirement was not narrowly tailored to serve the State’s interest in protecting the integrity of the initiative process because less restrictive safeguards existed. The court affirmed the district court’s order qualifying the previously disqualified signatures and placing the initiatives on the ballot.

Holdings

1. The requirement severely burdens core political speech because it effectively compels either the use of registered-voter circulators or a two-person circulation team consisting of an unregistered circulator and a registered voter willing to sign and notarize an affidavit for each petition booklet.
2. The Section 3(1) requirement is unconstitutional because it is not narrowly tailored to serve the assumed compelling interest in protecting the integrity and reliability of the initiative process.
3. The district court's judgment ordering the Secretary of State to qualify the previously disqualified signatures and place both initiatives on the ballot is affirmed.

Questions Presented

1. Whether Article 19, Section 3(1) of the Nevada Constitution, requiring each initiative-petition document to be accompanied by an affidavit executed by a signer who attests to the genuineness of the signatures and the signatories' voter-registration status, severely burdens political speech under the First Amendment.
2. Whether the Section 3(1) affidavit requirement survives strict scrutiny.
3. Whether the district court properly ordered the Secretary of State to qualify the previously disqualified signatures and place the initiatives on the ballot.

Disposition

affirmed