Bill Description: Senate Bill 1251 would provide statutory authority for the attorney general to seek declaratory and injunctive relief against any person for violating any Idaho statute.

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Does it violate the spirit or the letter of either the United States 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 US Constitution or the Idaho Constitution?

Senate Bill 1251 would amend Section 67-1401, Idaho Code, to say that, among other duties of the attorney general, he may “seek declaratory and injunctive relief against any person … who has violated or is violating an Idaho statute that creates a legal duty or prohibition but does not expressly create a civil cause of action through which the state or its officers may enforce the legal duty or prohibition.”

It would further declare that the attorney general “shall have a cause of action to seek such declaratory and injunctive relief, and any injunction entered shall be sufficient to prevent further violations of the statute.”

If judiciously applied, this expanded authority could be used by the Attorney General to pursue justice in cases where local prosecutors may have failed to act.

This bill also has the potential for misuse, however. Idaho has tens of thousands of pages of statutes covering hundreds of subjects and thousands of regulations and prohibitions. Some of these laws were implemented decades ago and have sat unused and largely forgotten.

If the legislature believes that a dormant or unenforceable law needs an enforcement provision or penalty attached to it, they can introduce legislation to amend the law appropriately. This bill would bypass this process by injecting a broad enforcement provision into every existing statute, regardless of its disuse or dormancy.

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