[Oct 22, 2022] This topic covers numerous items.  Since Nevada is a “Dillon’s Rule” state, it makes sense to explain what that means. Dillon’s Rule (named for a 19th-century Iowa Supreme Court judge) guides courts in interpreting the states’ grants of authority.  Under Dillon’s Rule, local governments possess only those powers specifically delegated to them by state law, or fairly implied from expressly granted powers.

This has been upheld by the Nevada Supreme Court and is codified in Nevada State law [NV Rev Stat § 268.001 (2017)]

The Legislature hereby finds and declares that:

1. Historically under Nevada law, the exercise of powers by the governing body of an incorporated city has been governed by a common-law rule on local governmental power known as Dillon’s Rule, which is named after former Chief Justice John F. Dillon of the Iowa Supreme Court who in a case from 1868 and in later treatises on the law governing local governments set forth the common-law rule defining and limiting the powers of local governments.

2. In Nevada’s jurisprudence, the Nevada Supreme Court has adopted and applied Dillon’s Rule to county, city and other local governments. [emphasis added]

4. Dillon’s Rule also provides that if there is any fair or reasonable doubt concerning the existence of a power, that doubt is resolved against the governing body … and the power is denied.

In Nevada, the courts have been the only place to obtain enforcement of “Dillon’s Rule”.

Of course there are areas of potential rules violations and various articles have been tagged with the topic of rules violations.