CARSON CITY, Nev. — Lawmakers in the Nevada Assembly will soon be asked to consider a bill that would create a ballot question asking voters whether to remove language related to slavery from the state constitution after a committee approved the bill Tuesday night.
Members of the Assembly Legislative Operation approved the bill unanimously following testimony heard in an earlier joint committee from Assemblyman Howard Watts, D-Las Vegas, the bill’s sponsor.
“We’re talking about the designation of human beings as the personal property of other people,” Watts said. “We’re talking about a complete loss of liberty, and of labor being compelled, forced without compensation, people being beaten, abused or killed without any consequence. I believe that it’s time for us to move forward and make it clear and unequivocal that nobody will ever live through the horror of state-sanctioned slavery or servitude ever again."
