Unpublished order of the day

The Nevada Supreme Court issued a large number of unpublished decisions yesterday.  A few concern proper person appeals in cases that are decades old.  These appeals raise the same two issues, both of which fall flat.  Ewing v. State is representative of the group.

The defendants in these post-conviction cases argue that the procedural defaults that apply to habeas cases do not apply to their cases because the district court lacked subject matter jurisdiction over the original convictions.  Specifically, they claim "that the statutes under which [they] were charged and convicted are unconstitutional, as they did not contain the enacting clause mandated by Article 4, Section 23 of the Nevada Constitution."  The Court disagrees and finds that "while the Nevada Revised Statutes (NRS) 'constitute the official codified version of the Statutes of Nevada and may be cited as prima facie evidence of the law,' the actual laws of Nevada are contained in the Statutes of Nevada.  NRS 200.170(3).  Therefore, the sections of the Nevada Revised Statutes under which appellant was convicted were not unconstitutional for failure to include an enacting clause,indicating that the district court did not lack subject matter jurisdiction over appellant."  The Court also finds that the district court did not lack subject matter jurisdiction to impose a deadly weapon enhancement.

I would give an "A" for creativity.