Supreme Court justices gather to file

A trio of state Supreme Court justices will lead the charge of candidates Monday when they file for re-election.

Chief Justice Robert Rose, Justice Myron Leavitt, and Justice Nancy Becker plan to file their paperwork with the Nevada Secretary of State's office together to show their unity.

Rose is filing for a third-term on the court. Prior to that he served as a district judge in Clark County. He won previous elections as Washoe district attorney and lieutenant governor.

Leavitt, 69, has served as a justice of the peace, Las Vegas city councilman, Clark County commissioner and Nevada lieutenant governor.

Becker, 44, is the first woman elected to the Municipal Court in Las Vegas and the first woman appointed to the District Court in Nevada.

The three justices are the only ones seeking re-election to the court because the state Constitution requires justices' terms to be staggered as much as possible.

The Nevada Supreme Court says judges and judicial candidates now can disclose their political affiliations, although they still can't be involved in partisan politics.

Justices on Thursday amended the Nevada Code of Judicial Code to allow judges and candidates for such offices to identify themselves as a member of a party when asked.

Previously they weren't supposed to even respond to such questions.

But the court said ''adherence to that interpretation creates the appearance that judges and candidates are being evasive or secretive.''

Judges and judicial candidates still must not list a political party on campaign literature, advertising, billboards, yard signs and other items. They may place their campaign literature, however, on tables set up for such purposes by political parties.

In Nevada, all judges run for nonpartisan positions. Filing for election to judicial and other offices begins Monday and continues through May 15.

While judges previously couldn't give out their political party membership, some of the best-known judges are former politicians.

Rose and Leavitt both were Democratic lieutenant governors and unsuccessful Democrat candidates for governor. Rose also was a state Democratic Party chairman.

Justice Cliff Young is a former two-term Republican member of Congress and a longtime Republican state senator from Reno.