The Nevada Supreme Court upheld a lower court ruling preventing the American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada from obtaining more documentation related to a well-publicized 2023 altercation where a Clark County school police officer used force against Black students. 

The court said in a Thursday decision that because state law prevents even the officer being investigated from accessing the entire investigative file involving them unless and until they are disciplined, the information within the file is exempt from disclosure under Nevada Public Records Act. 

The Clark County School District has previously stated that Lt. Jason Elfberg, the officer seen in a video recording showing him pushing a Black student to the ground and placing his knee on the student's back to hold him down, was not disciplined.  

The altercation took place after school near Durango High School. According to the district, school police were in the area responding to a reported firearm. School police also detained two other students. The ACLU of Nevada said none of the students involved were armed. 

In December 2023, a Clark County judge ordered the school district to release body camera footage and other records after a lawsuit was filed by the ACLU. But the district court denied further attempts to get more records. 

Last January, CCSD approved a $1 million settlement with two of the students involved in the incident who were represented by the ACLU of Nevada. 

In the opinion, the Supreme Court said its decision "is a narrow one," and shouldn't be seen as excising or amending its previous stances on the state's public records law. 

But ACLU of Nevada Executive Director Athar Haseebullah disagreed, saying the decision felt more sweeping than the court made it out to be. The nonprofit advocacy organization plans to request a hearing with the full court — Thursday's order was signed by a three-justice panel of the court. 

"This decision in its existing form would effectively allow for law enforcement to largely skirt aspects of public transparency that are very much necessary," he said in a Thursday phone interview. "You're not going to have accountability without transparency."

The school district did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the decision. 

Haseebullah also argued that the justices should have focused more on the contents of the file, rather than a debate on whether the file should be confidential or not solely based on its status as investigatory. 

"Under this scenario, law enforcement would be able to continuously bury its misconduct simply by suggesting it being as part of an internal investigation, and those investigations are never really made transparent," he said. "That's a problem in and of itself."

This story was updated on 3/26/26 at 4:10 p.m. to include comments from the ACLU of Nevada's executive director.