State Senate Republicans say Democratic lawmakers created a constitutional crisis by pushing through a last minute change to the partisan makeup of an important interim legislative committee that approves state regulations, but Republicans are opting not to file a lawsuit because of concerns that a court wouldn’t want to rule on a case involving internal legislative affairs.

The comments from Senate Minority Leader Robin Titus (R-Wellington) during Monday’s Legislative Commission meeting reopened debate about Democratic lawmakers’ actions in the final moments of the 2025 legislative session, which ended in June.

In the session’s final minutes, Senate Democrats introduced and quickly voted out resolutions naming members (SR9) and reducing the number of Republican lawmakers on the Legislative Commission (SCR8), which was previously evenly divided in partisan makeup despite Democrats comfortably controlling both legislative chambers.

“While we believe there is legal standing to challenge SR9 in the courts and win, the judiciary is unlikely to intervene in internal legislative process and procedures,” Titus said at the start of Monday’s meeting.

Senate Majority Leader Nicole Cannizzaro (D-Las Vegas) said it was inappropriate to bring up those legal debates during the meeting.

A representative from the Senate Democratic Caucus did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

With less than an hour before the end of the 83rd legislative session, the Senate introduced and passed SCR8, a resolution changing the makeup of the Legislative Commission from three members appointed from each party to four members from the majority party (Democrats) and two members from the minority party (Republicans).

Equal partisan representation on the Legislative Commission has previously helped sink several state regulations that drew GOP pushback, including several changes to the state’s all-mail election system and vaccine mandates for college students and state workers during the COVID pandemic. 

The motion to vote on SR9 was opened before midnight June 2, the final day of the legislative session, but the Senate voted minutes after midnight June 3. The Nevada Constitution states actions conducted after the 120th day of the legislative session are void.

Cannizzaro justified the vote that night, saying the motion was still outstanding. 

At Monday's meeting, Titus also accused the Assembly of violating standard practices by voting on SCR8 without ever receiving a copy of the resolution.

Titus said Senate Republicans believed there is a “strong legal case” over the deadline issue to challenge and invalidate SR9, which named members to the Legislative Commission, however, they believed judicial intervention on SCR8 was unlikely given the reluctance of courts to weigh in on internal legislative matters — leading her to pledge that Republicans would “shine a light on these actions ahead of the next election — particularly for high-information nonpartisan voters who value fairness and transparency.” 

Legislative Democrats including Assembly Speaker Steve Yeager (D-Las Vegas) denied several of Titus’ claims, including that the Assembly did not receive a copy of SCR8 before the Assembly voted on it. 

“The only thing I don't think was accurate was we got the transmission. We had it. It came in the chamber. So whatever happened, I'm confident that we had everything right,” Yeager told The Nevada Independent.

Titus also claimed that Lt. Gov. Stavros Anthony, a Republican who is constitutionally required to preside over the Senate, was locked out of the Senate chambers before midnight after the Senate came back from a short recess, which “raises serious questions under the legality of the Senate's actions during that period.”

“I stood there and witnessed him trying to get into the building, into the chamber and saw the sergeant at arms blocking him from entering the chamber,” Sen. Ira Hansen (R-Sparks) said during the meeting.

Cannizzaro called those allegations “100 percent untrue” during the meeting. Anthony contended on social media he was locked out of the chamber, although he wasn’t there when lawmakers began to walk in after the recess and wasn’t present in the chambers when they shut the door to the Senate chambers — signaling the start of floor activity.