Elimination of women’s rights, voter suppression and educational censorship all in one place. This year’s legislative session was worse than the last, so sky-high positive COVID-19 rates aren’t the only records Idaho shouldn’t have broken this year.
The legislature closed their session Thursday after an 81-day long rollercoaster ride. Many bills that passed through the legislature were controversial and terrible. Senate Bill 1309, which allows relatives to sue medical practitioners who perform abortions after a heartbeat is detected, was called “unwise” by the very politician who signed it into law.
“While I support the pro-life policy in this legislation, I fear the novel civil enforcement mechanism will in short order be proven both unconstitutional and unwise,” Idaho Gov. Brad Little said in his transmittal letter. “Deputizing private citizens to levy hefty monetary fines on the exercise of a disfavored but judicially recognized constitutional right for the purpose of evading court review undermines our constitutional form of government and weakens our collective liberties.”
A regional branch of Planned Parenthood has already taken action and filed a petition with the Idaho Supreme Court to block the abortion ban. The organization said the bill “improperly and illegally delegates law enforcement to private citizens, violating the separation of powers and allowing plaintiffs without injury to sue, in violation of the Idaho Constitution,” according to a press release.
But women’s rights aren’t the only thing the Idaho legislature attacked this year. Libraries are also under the wrongful scrutiny of our representatives. The House passed House Bill 666 (what a fitting number for this bill) that would have removed legal protections for many of the state’s educational resources for materials that are “harmful to minors.”
Just wait until they figure out how easy porn is to access on the internet, or anything else they might consider “inappropriate.”
It would be much better for everyone to have unlimited access to libraries, where there are actual people to help point minors in the right direction, than it would for them to wander the massive amount of information on the internet unguided and unsupervised. Luckily this bill didn’t get a hearing in the Senate after being passed through the House.
In case going after women and educational resources wasn’t bad enough, two bills were proposed that would change the way Idaho’s voting procedures function. House Bill 549, called the Secure Election Act, would have required Idahoans to sign an affidavit verifying their identity at the polls on Election Day. Student IDs would also not be a valid form of identification, but concealed carry permits would have been included on the valid list.
Rep. Dorothy Moon, R-Stanley, co-sponsor to the Secure Election Act along with Sen. Regina Bayer, R-Meridian, told legislators that a special assistant to former President Donald Trump worked on the bill too.
The anti ballot-harvesting bill from the 2021 legislative also made a comeback as House Bill 547, which would have made it illegal to knowingly collect and return someone else’s absentee ballot. While this bill has a slew of issues when it comes to accessibility, last year legislators were concerned that the bill would have turned friends into criminals for helping out by dropping off someone else’s ballot.
While only one of these bills was actually effected into law, the idea that our legislators are so concerned with problems that only exist inside the daydreams of far-right wing extremists is disturbing.
With the primaries coming up on May 17, keep in mind all these outrageous shenanigans from current lawmakers as you vote. Do your research, learn about who exactly is representing you, and read the local news to stay updated on Idaho politics.
We need to get these fools out of office and get someone who actually represents Idahoans back in. Be careful about who you vote for, but get your voice out there in a way that really makes a difference. Keep our democracy in the peoples’ hands.
- Editorial Board
Alicia
Thank you. This damn state…