Some veteran public officials seeking re-election have been blocked from serving new terms because the state Supreme Court has upheld term limits in a ruling delivered just one day before the start of Nevada's early voting.

A pair of rulings Friday mean no votes can be counted for 21 incumbents in local or state government service who have hit a voter-mandated limit of 12 years of service.

They include Clark County Commissioner Bruce Woodbury, a 27-year fixture on the powerful commission who already has spent more than $200,000 in his bid for another term. Others affected include two state university system regents, and several school and town board members around Nevada.

Since ballots were already printed for the start of early voting on Saturday, no changes in listed candidates could be made.

"The ballots are all going to contain these names," Clark County Registrar Larry Lomax said. "What we're going to have to do is post signs at all the polling places explaining which candidates are out."

The high court said the Nevada Constitution "plainly states" that officials can't serve more than 12 years, under terms of the term limits approved by voters in 1996.

However, 13 longtime state legislators escaped the immediate effect of the ruling. The voter mandate took effect a few weeks after the November 1996 elections, when a final vote canvass made the results official. State legislators elected that year took office the day after the election, and the Supreme Court said in a separate ruling that the mandate can't apply retroactively to them.

If confirmed by the Senate, Diamond, a federal district judge in eastern Pennsylvania since 2004, would fill one of two open seats on the federal appellate bench, which covers Pennsylvania, Delaware, New Jersey and the Virgin Islands.

Bush withdrew his nomination of Gene E.K. Pratter after she was opposed by some lawmakers for her conservative judicial views.

If Diamond succeeds in being elevated to the appellate court, that will leave a total of four vacancies on the Eastern District of the Pennsylvania bench.

To fill those, Bush nominated Bucks County Common Pleas Judge Mitchell Goldberg, Philadelphia Common Pleas President Judge C. Darnell Jones II, Philadelphia attorney Carolyn Short and Philadelphia criminal defense attorney Joel H. Slomsky.

Diamond, 55, is a native of Brooklyn, N.Y. He went to Columbia University in the 1970s and earned his law degree from the University of Pennsylvania Law School in 1977.

He has worked as a former assistant district attorney, a law clerk at the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, a partner in two law firms and as an adjunct professor at Temple University's Beasley School of Law in Philadelphia.

Cozen O'Connor has asked Commonwealth Court to reconsider its argument that the Ethics Board is wrong in requiring that donations to Brady's mayoral campaign committee, for the purpose of retiring his debt, comply with the city's limits on donor contributions.

Brady incurred nearly $450,000 in legal fees during his successful fight to stay on the ballot during last year's mayoral primary. He would be able to pay that debt off faster and easier if donors now were permitted to exceed the city caps in that race, which were $5,000 per individual, and $20,000 per political committee.

But in a ruling last month, Common Pleas Court Judge Gary F. DiVito dismissed Cozen O'Connor's lawsuit, saying the firm lacked the legal standing to challenge the city law

The Securities and Exchange Commission settled two civil lawsuits Tuesday against a North Texas stock promoter allegedly involved in so-called pump-and-dump market manipulation scams.

One suit is still pending against five other people and one company.

The complaints allege that Coppell accountant Mark B. Lindberg, 40, helped market a series of penny stocks and, along with other defendants, reaped millions of dollars by releasing false information to pump up the share price.

In settling the cases, Mr. Lindberg neither admitted nor denied the allegations. He has agreed to a permanent injunction and is barred from being an officer or director. He also agreed to not be involved in penny stocks.

The initial suit involves an Irving company called Sniffex that Mr. Lindberg helped take public.

The company, which marketed a bomb detection device, is now called Homeland Safety International Inc. and was controlled primarily by two Bulgarians.

The complaint also names president Paul B. Johnson of Colleyville, who could not be reached for comment Tuesday, and two investors from Denmark. The suit still seeks penalties against the defendants other than Mr. Lindberg.

U.S. securities regulators need to be more aggressive in attacking manipulative rumor-mongering and short selling abuses, a prominent New York law firm said Monday.

In a memo to clients, Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz urged the Securities and Exchange Commission to conduct a 45-day study of the extent to which "abusive and manipulative short-selling and spreading of false rumors is taking place," and to issue a public report on its findings.

The law firm also called for the SEC to adopt rules as appropriate in response to its findings, and to bring enforcement actions against wrongdoers, coordinating efforts with criminal prosecutors where necessary.

Wachtell, Lipton's call to arms came one day after an unusual Sunday announcement from the SEC that it plans to begin immediate examinations into controls at brokerage firms, mutual funds, money management companies and hedge funds to prevent the deliberate spreading of false rumors to manipulate stock prices.

The SEC's examination into industry practices came after a rocky week of trading and concerns about the outlook for federal housing-finance giants Fannie Mae (FNM) and Freddie Mac (FRE) and for commercial and investment banks, including Lehman Brothers Inc. (LEH).

"While this is an important first step, the SEC needs to undertake additional bold measures to constrain abusive short-selling and rumor-mongering," according to the memo, signed by Wachtell, Lipton partners Edward Herlihy and Theodore Levine. The two recently urged the SEC to bring back restrictions on short sales when stock prices are declining, recommending a return to so-called "tick test" that forbade short sales when markets are ticking down.

SEC spokesman John Nester declined to comment.

Wachtell, Lipton is a leading advisor in corporate mergers, including the acquisition of Bear Stearns Cos. by JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM). Some former Bear executives have blamed the firm's collapse on market manipulation by short sellers and JPMorgan Chase Chief Executive Jamie Dimon recently said that the SEC should investigate whether Bear was brought down by a smear campaign.

Short sellers sell borrow shares in hopes of replacing them later at a lower price, profiting when the stock declines. While the practice is legal, critics say regulators have been ineffective in curbing abusive, manipulative short selling.

The members of the Supreme Court, by age:

John Paul Stevens, 88

Ruth Bader Ginsburg, 75

Antonin Scalia, 72

Anthony Kennedy, 71

Stephen Breyer, 69

David Souter, 68

Clarence Thomas, 60

Samuel Alito, 58

John Roberts, 53

The last 10 justices to leave the Supreme Court, with their age and date of retirement:

Sandra Day O'Connor, 75, Jan. 31, 2006

William Rehnquist, 80, Sept. 3, 2005-x

Harry Blackmun, 85, Aug. 3, 1994

Byron White, 76, June 28, 1993

Thurgood Marshall, 83, Oct. 1, 1991

William Brennan, 84, July 20, 1990

Lewis Powell, 79, June 26, 1987

Warren Burger, 79, Sept. 26, 1986

Potter Stewart, 66, July 3, 1981

William Douglas, 77, Nov. 12, 1975