SJR 102 will be on the ballot this November and we thought you might want to know how we feel about this amendment.
There are pros and cons to the amendment. It came about because Governor Brad Little refused to call the legislature into session when he issued the lock-down of Idaho due to the COVID “pandemic”.
The people of Idaho had no say in this because the legislature could not force the Governor to let them convene so that our
representatives had a say in the lock-down issue and the unconstitutional duration that the Governor maintained the state of emergency for.
Since the Governor has been given sweeping emergency powers, it makes sense that the legislature has a say as well during an emergency. Unfortunately this amendment does not limit itself to fixing this one issue.
The reason that the current state constitution does not allow the legislature to call itself into session is to maintain a “citizen legislature” which is an attempt to help prevent legislators from becoming a team of full-time, professional politicians.
We here at the ICGG are not entirely happy with this proposed solution.
If the governor did do something wrong by declaring an emergency for an extended period of time without consulting the legislature, why has he not been impeached?
Our legislature currently has too many RINOs (Republican’s in Name Only) to have the back-bone needed to assert their full power as a legislature and it is doubtful, if this situation is not fixed, that this amendment to the constitution would fix anything.
The governor too was likely more motivated by the massive bribe offered by the Federal Government for states to declare emergencies than by the interests of our citizen’s health or financial well being. A check on such behavior needs to be in place. Had our legislature impeached the governor for his high-crime of accepting a bribe, we would not need a self-calling-into-session legislature.
Asking one’s representative why they didn’t impeach the Governor when they had the chance might be a good way to figure out who you want to vote for this year.
It is doubtful that passing SJR 102 will solve anything of consequence.
We found these sources of opinion and facts you might not see printed in your local paper or discussed on the radio. ICGG does not officially endorse the sources of this information – it is strictly for your own information and education.
In October, Priscilla Giddings gave a talk on her views on SJR 102. We just came across an audio recording (12 min. long) of her views.
Items Discussed:
Idaho Representative Ron Nate had this to say about SJR 102.
We found this podcast interviewing Heather Scott revealing more issues with SJR 102 – like it’s unconstitutional and other news of changes that are happening.