Bill Description: House Bill 498 would grant the Senate President pro tempore and Speaker of the House authority to employ private counsel to sue the federal government.
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Does it violate the spirit or the letter of either the U.S. Constitution or the Idaho Constitution? Examples include restrictions on speech, public assembly, the press, privacy, private property, or firearms. Conversely, does it restore or uphold the protections guaranteed in the U.S. Constitution or the Idaho Constitution?
In 2023, House Bill 326 was passed into law. This problematic bill amended §67-465 to give the Senate president pro tempore or Speaker of the House "sole discretion" to decide when or if the Legislature would intervene to uphold the constitutionality of a law it had passed.
House Bill 498 would create Section 67-465A, Idaho Code, to say that “When, in the judgment of the president pro tempore of the senate and the speaker of the house of representatives, the interest of the state requires counsel in addition to the attorney general to pursue an action against the federal government on behalf of the state, the president pro tempore of the senate and the speaker of the house of representatives may jointly employ such counsel to pursue such actions.”
While there may be times when the Legislature has good cause to defend its actions and laws, as we noted with House Bill 326, leaving these decisions to just two members of legislative leadership largely ignores those lawmakers who originally passed the challenged law. It also ignores the fact that bills do occasionally pass the Legislature without the support of the Pro tempore or the Speaker.
There is also the matter of cost. The bill’s fiscal note suggests that “existing funds will be used for any fees in 2026,” but it also acknowledges that “additional appropriations may be requested in 2027, if necessary.”
Particularly in a year where revenues have decreased, and government should be seeking all opportunities to cut costs, expanding the power of legislative leadership to expend funds on potentially duplicative legal ventures may be unwise.
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