Bill Description: House Bill 85 would allow the governor to veto an initiative that passed by less than a two-thirds majority. 

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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?

House Bill 85 would amend sections 34-1811 and 34-1813, Idaho Code, to allow the governor to veto an initiative that passed by less than a two-thirds majority. The governor has the power to veto bills by the Legislature; House Bill 85 would extend that same logic to initiatives.

An initiative that passed by at least a two-thirds majority "shall be approved without the need for the governor's approval." This is consistent with a two-thirds majority of the Legislature being able to override a veto and serves to restore legal equivalence to the initiative process.

House Bill 85 would help restore some of the constitutional principles that have been lost in the initiative process. The U.S. Constitution guarantees "to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government," but political and legal trends have pushed the country toward direct democracy for more than a century. The initiative process is part of this shift.

Subjecting laws created by initiatives that pass by narrow majorities to the gubernatorial review and veto process would provide the same kind of checks and balances that exist for laws arising from legislation.

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