Nevada Supreme Court declines to rule on AG representing Nye judge

The Nevada Supreme Court dismissed a petition filed by Nye County judge Wanker that asked Attorney General Aaron Ford’s office to represent her in a judicial misconduct proceeding initiated by First Assistant Attorney General Craig Newby. The three-justice order dismissed the case last week on technical grounds and expressly declined to decide whether state law requires the attorney general to represent judges in proceedings before the Nevada Commission on Judicial Discipline.

Wanker had argued that Nevada’s statute obligating the attorney general to represent “local judicial officers” in any “civil action” entitles judges to AG representation as soon as they receive notice of a complaint from the Commission on Judicial Discipline. The complaint at the center of Wanker’s petition was filed by Craig Newby, and the substance of Newby’s filing is not public, a fact that formed part of Wanker’s request for counsel avoiding an apparent conflict of interest.

The Supreme Court’s dismissal did not resolve Wanker’s central statutory claim. The ruling from three supreme court justices sidestepped broader questions and left unresolved whether the attorney general’s duty under the cited statute extends to Commission on Judicial Discipline proceedings rather than only to conventional civil litigation. The order did not disclose detailed reasoning in the excerpts available and did not identify the participating justices by name.

Wanker’s petition comes amid a long judicial career in Nye County: she was appointed to the bench in 2011 by Gov. Brian Sandoval and is currently running for re-election to the Nye County Circuit Court. Court biographies and prior records note that Wanker was described as the state’s first female district court judge in a rural area and trained as a professional racecar driver before entering the legal profession.

The current complaint follows earlier discipline: the Commission on Judicial Discipline had previously reprimanded Wanker at least once for inappropriately holding a defendant in contempt of court. As part of that earlier reprimand, Wanker vacated the contempt finding and agreed to take two courses on management skills and ethics in the courtroom, a remedial measure recorded in commission proceedings.

Because the complaint against Wanker was lodged by a staffer in the attorney general’s office, the question of whether AG Aaron Ford’s office may represent her without conflict was central to the petition. With the Supreme Court declining to rule on the merits, Nevada judges and the AG’s office remain without a definitive statewide ruling on whether the statutory duty to represent “local judicial officers” includes Commission on Judicial Discipline matters.

The dismissal leaves the legal issue open and the procedural status of the complaint and any Commission proceedings against Wanker unchanged in public records; the complaint’s substance remains sealed or not publicly disclosed, and the court’s technical rationale was not fully explained in the available order.