When it comes to enshrining constitutional rights to all Americans regardless of financial status, public defenders are absolutely vital. When one is unable to afford an attorney, the Public Defender’s Office will provide them with legal representation in the decisions and actions of the courtroom that can oftentimes be confusing to someone who doesn’t have a Juris Doctorate. The importance of the services provided by public defenders cannot be understated when it comes to ensuring that American courthouses don’t turn into a kangaroo court where the defendant doesn’t have any adequate form of representation.
And luckily for the pursuit of fair and equal justice in future lawmaking, a decent number of former public defenders have become elected officials in very high-ranking positions within not only several state Legislature bodies but also serving as judges in courtrooms that range in jurisdiction and power from appellate courts, to U.S District Courts across the country and with the recent addition of Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, The United States Supreme Court as well. In fact, Justice Brown Jackson is the first former federal public defender to serve on the Supreme Court.
Fortunately for the future lawmaking of a politically purple state such as Nevada, a former public defender who served for eight years is now serving as the very powerful Speaker of the Nevada Assembly. Not only that, but the public defender turned politician has also served as either chair or vice chair in numerous vital Nevada Assembly committees such as the Judiciary, the Growth and Infrastructure and the Redistricting and Elections Committees.
“I wasn’t sure that I wanted to be a lawyer growing up.” Speaker Steve Yeager recollected. “I applied to law school not knowing exactly whether I wanted to be a lawyer or what type of law I would practice. I just wasn’t ready to get out there and start a career just yet and I don’t think I have any lawyers in my family. So it was a career choice that was pretty unique for me.”
Following his graduation from Cornell Law School in 2004, Yeager practiced commercial litigation law for large companies in Phoenix as well as insurance defense and class action work. Although not previously having practiced criminal law, Yeager took a position with the Clark County Public Defender’s Office in March of 2009 and relocated to Las Vegas. During his tenure with the Public Defender’s Office, Yeager personally witnessed the many damaging flaws and often-occuring injustices of the American criminal justice system.
“It was apparent to me right when I got into that work that the criminal justice system was very uneven. It seems people who committed the same type of crime or were in the same situation ended up getting treated very differently when it came to different sentences and sometimes whether or not they would even be charged. A huge takeaway for me was the overarching theme for me of seeing criminal law at work where some people were punished too harshly and others weren’t punished harshly enough.”
Given his lengthy tenure at the Public Defender’s Office, Yeager dealt with many of the over-prosecuted cannabis-related cases in the several years before Question 2 passed and legalized the plant. One such case in 2011 or 2012 involved a woman who had been charged with multiple charges of cannabis trafficking despite the fact that the defendant was a medical marijuana cardholder. The defendant was accused of providing cannabis for other medical patients, as medical dispensaries were yet to open and patients had no retail way to procure their cannabis. The defendant system to distribute cannabis resembled more of a co-op instead of a retail dispensary and this operation was apparently run in an unsophisticated and unorganized manner. Ultimately, she’d be charged with felonies due to undercover officers visiting her shop and being able to purchase products from her.
“It seemed very over the top,” Yeager recalled, “as she was facing life in prison when she was really just trying to help other patients.”
By 2013, the Nevada Legislature had finally authorized the opening of medical dispensaries and Yeager was able to significantly reduce his client’s punishment. Through meeting with the District Attorney at the time, the client didn’t receive a single felony conviction or have to serve prison time.
“That experience showed me that there was a lot of power in the Legislative process. If the 2013 Legislature had not authorized dispensaries, I think the case would have ended a lot differently. It would’ve been a high stakes case where we’d have to go to trial and convince a jury that she shouldn’t spend life in prison over trying to provide cannabis to other cannabis patients.”
The Clark County Public Defender’s Office would also be incredibly influential for Yeager’s successful foray into Nevada politics.
“I was really recruited into politics.” Yeager joked. “I was just doing my job at the Public Defender’s Office, blissfully unaware of what was happening politically. Then a couple of people reached out and asked if I would be interested in lobbying on behalf of the Public Defender’s Office in Carson City. Every session, the office would send someone up there to lobby for criminal justice issues. I was chosen to be part of the Clark County lobbying team and that was the first time I ever went to Carson City and saw the Legislature in person. Even then, I didn’t intend to run for office. But it turned out that my Assemblyman decided not to run for re-election, so it became an open seat.”
Unfortunately, Yeager won the Democratic Party’s primary but didn’t win his first general election in 2014, as District 9’s election went in favor of the Republican candidate David M. Gardner. This loss didn’t impact Yeager’s drive, as he went up to Carson City again in 2015 to once again lobby the now Republican-led Assembly on behalf of the Public Defender’s Office. One of the major types of legislation that Yeager lobbied for on behalf of the Public Defender’s Office were bills related to the opening of medical cannabis dispensaries as well as other bills related to progressive mental health and substance abuse treatment services in Nevada.
“Anything we could do to provide offenders with treatment and diversion and then making sure the criminal justice system and the criminal code itself was fair in the way it was administered. A lot of it was procedural and substance in terms of criminal law, but I was able to expand and go into mental health and healthcare bills because that’s usually a part of what’s going on with someone when they get involved in the criminal justice system. And I had a very different lobbying experience in 2015 and decided to once again run for office in 2016. Thankfully, I’ve been successful ever since.”
After the reverse of the 2014 election occurring and Yeager winning the 2016 election for District 9 against Gardner by nearly 3,000 votes, Yeager continued to advocate for the same type of bills that he lobbied for during his time with the Public Defender’s Office. In the four Legislature sessions that Yeager has served in the Assembly for, the Assemblyman has increasingly become one of if not the strongest legislative ally and champion for cannabis reform and the strengthening of the Nevada cannabis industry.
“My goal has always been to move the industry forward and to find the right balance between having businesses that can thrive and having supply for customers but also having appropriate regulatory oversight.”
One of the most groundbreaking bills that Yeager sponsored and pushed through multiple committee meetings for the Nevada cannabis industry was the 2021 Assembly Bill 341. With this bill, Nevada lawmakers authorized the opening and operation of cannabis consumption lounges. Besides giving designated and memorable consumption spaces to the millions of annual visitors that Las Vegas and Reno receive along with the thousands of locals that consume cannabis, AB 341 also provides the currently turbulent industry with a new business avenue for significant revenue and job creation simultaneously.
“I think AB 341 was very important because as the readers may know, when Nevada passed legal cannabis, there was a prohibition from consuming it in public. So in Las Vegas, we have a big problem where we have 40 million tourists a year but nowhere for them to consume because hotels generally turn cannabis away because they’re worried about federal legality with their gaming licenses. To me, it didn’t make sense that we didn’t have a place where all these people could consume.”
Beyond just the glitz of glamour of Las Vegas tourism, AB 341 could help Nevadans who aren’t allowed to consume cannabis in their own home, such as Section 8/federally subsidized housing recipients due to the Schedule I status of the plant or overly strict landlords that prohibit smoking in their properties.
“With other cannabis legislation, it’s just trying to get the system right. Originally, Nevada cannabis started as being regulated by the Department of Health and Human Services, then over to the Department of Taxation and neither of those are where it really belongs. So we created the Cannabis Compliance Board and we’re looking at the gaming structure as a model where we have a separate agency that will oversee the cannabis industry.
I think the initial legislation that we passed wasn’t perfect, but we’re going back every session to figure out what the right balance is. Appropriate regulation, but we also have to have an environment where consumers have choice and don’t have to pay exorbitant prices and businesses can thrive in this market. But that’s always tricky with a new industry.”
The Nevada cannabis industry gained a considerable advantage during the first days of the 2023 Nevada Legislative Session when Assemblyman Yeager was sworn in as Speaker of the Assembly. The advantage has already paid off for the industry, as several different cannabis-related bills passed this session. One such bill, Senate Bill 277, doubled the daily purchasing limits for Nevada cannabis consumers and Senate Bill 328 which changes the procedure in which new CCB board members are appointed as well as the qualifications and terms of those members.
Yeager hypothesizes there could be future change to Nevada’s cannabis industry, from possibly an expansion of the consumption lounge program to a change in how the industry and its business owners are taxed. And whenever younger representatives truly take power and there’s cannabis reform on the federal level, Nevada will have years of quality experience to become a national powerhouse.
The reform of cannabis’ current Schedule I status on the Controlled Substances List alone would be a tremendous reform. Currently, cannabis companies across the country have steep trouble at utilizing proper banking services, cannabis employees themselves cannot receive a federally backed mortgage loan, US veterans may be at risk of losing their VA benefits and there’s several more issues regarding 2nd Amendment rights in relation to cannabis possession and usage. Even a simple reform at the federal level would have legislative and policy-altering shockwaves across multiple departments of the American federal government.
“I think Nevada is in a unique place because if there was a relaxation of the federal prohibition, there would be unique opportunities for Nevada to work with other states and companies.”
Josh Kasoff can be reached at [email protected].
The post From Public Defender to Speaker of the Nevada Assembly: Steve Yeager appeared first on Vegas Legal Magazine.