Nevada family-law case summaries

This case arose out of a child welfare proceeding in Clark County. DFS removed two children from their parents because of ongoing domestic violence and placed them with their paternal aunt. For two months, before the aunt became a licensed foster parent, DFS helped her pay rent. Once she became licensed, she began receiving regular foster care subsidies instead. The children's attorney later asked DFS for additional rental help for the aunt. DFS said no, explaining that the agency does not pay rental deposits. During a hearing on a motion to terminate the parents' rights, the aunt asked the judge for financial help. After learning DFS had earlier paid two months of rent, the district court ordered DFS to pay another $1,000 toward the aunt's rent. DFS asked the judge to reconsider; the judge refused. DFS then went to the Nevada Supreme Court, asking it to throw out the order. The Supreme Court agreed to hear the case as a writ petition (an extraordinary request asking a higher court to step in) because DFS had no ordinary right to appeal this kind of mid-case order. On the merits, the court held that no Nevada statute gave the district court the power to order DFS to spend money on rent for a foster parent. The Legislature, the court explained, gave child-welfare agencies like DFS broad discretion to decide how to spend the money the state appropriates to them - the statute even says DFS may use block grant money for child welfare services "without restriction." When the district court ordered DFS to pay rent anyway, it stepped outside its role and into the agency's role. The Supreme Court therefore granted the petition and ordered the district court to vacate (cancel) its rental-assistance order. The court did not decide the constitutional separation-of-powers, due process, or local court rule arguments DFS also raised, because the statutory ruling alone resolved the case.