4th District Judge Mike Wetherell, after taking close to an hour of arguments from both sides in the secret-donations case, said he's going to try to have his opinion out by 5 p.m. today. "I don't know whether I'll make it, but I'm going to attempt to," he said. He added that the parties are "going to run out of here to the Supreme Court as soon as the opinion's done anyway, I'm sure," and Christ Troupis, attorney for Education Voters of Idaho, laughed heartily.

Asked afterward, he said if the secretive group that ran statewide TV ads backing Propositions 1, 2 and 3 doesn't prevail today in its bid to head off the Secretary of State's demands that it reveal the sources of the money for the campaign under the Idaho Sunshine Law, he will appeal to the Idaho Supreme Court.  "These are important issues," Troupis said. "This needs to be a considered decision."

He maintained that EVI, which was formed on the same day and by the same people as a political committee that placed the TV ads, is akin to the Idaho Statesman newspaper or Micron Corp. in engaging in politics - the newspaper through endorsing candidates, and Micron in donating corporate funds to a PAC. But Deputy Attorney General Brian Kane argued that EVI is different, and that its activities show a clear effort to evade the Sunshine law and avoid disclosure. "There is a need for disclosure. The public has a right to know," Kane told the court. "This is the court's opportunity to let that sun shine."