BOISE, Idaho (AP) - The Idaho Legislature’s Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee has approved a transfer of $1 million from Idaho’s general fund to the Constitutional Defense Fund.
Jon Hanian, spokesman for Gov. C.L. “Butch” Otter, told the Moscow Pullman-Daily News the Constitutional Defense Fund was created in 1995 to defend the state and its constitution. Some legal fights so far have included such things as conflicts with the Endangered Species Act and parental consent for abortions.
Rep. Shirley Ringo, a Moscow Democrat, voted this week against the $1 million transfer. She says the money could go to defend a law banning same sex marriages, and that the money could be better used elsewhere.
“I wasn’t interested in spending money on supporting a bad decision,” Ringo said. “It won’t hold up constitutionally.”
But Rep. Maxine Bell, the Jerome Republican who chairs the panel, says that’s not the reason for the transfer. She told KTVB there was no indication the money was marked for a legal defense of the same-sex marriage ban.
Idaho law recognizes only marriages between a man and a woman, and a 2006 voter-enacted constitutional amendment bans same-sex marriages.
Four couples in November filed a lawsuit challenging Idaho’s same-sex-marriage ban, arguing that the ban violates the U.S. Constitution’s equal protection and due process guarantees.
Otter has argued in legal filings that states, not the federal government, have the right to define marriage. He contends that Idaho’s laws banning same-sex marriage are vital to the state’s goal of creating “stable, husband-wife unions for the benefit of their children.”
As early as the start of January, legislators, including House Speaker Scott Bedke, R-Oakley, suggested to reporters that money set aside in the Constitutional Defense Fund could be used to defend the ban on same-sex marriage.
Federal judges have voided all or part of voter-approved bans on same-sex marriage in Utah, Oklahoma and Kentucky. Appeals are pending. On Wednesday, a federal judge struck down Texas’ ban on gay marriage but postponed action pending appeals in separate courts.
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Information from: The Moscow-Pullman Daily News, https://www.dnews.com
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