Arrow-right Camera
The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

High Court’s Water Rights Ruling Makes Special Session Unlikely

Associated Press

The prospect that the Idaho Legislature might have to be called into special session to deal with water rights has evaporated with a peacemaking decision by the Idaho Supreme Court.

On Friday, the court unanimously upheld the right of the Legislature to make substantive procedural changes in the midst of the sweeping Snake River Basin Water Rights Adjudication.

The court, in a 27-page opinion, validated all but three of the provisions in the 1994 package that lawmakers approved to streamline and expedite the determination of 163,000 water rights claims across the southern part of the state.

Attorney General Alan Lance talked about the “spirit of cooperation among the branches of state government” and said the decision will allow orderly resolution of the water rights case.

“This helps clear the way for processing the more than 170,000 claims (in the Snake River Basin),” said new Water Resources Director Karl Dreher.

District Judge Daniel Hurlbutt’s rulings had left a lot of lawmakers in a hostile mood. It appeared the Legislature and high court were headed toward a clash over authority.

But the Supreme Court decision, authored by Chief Justice Charles McDevitt, made it clear that the court acknowledges the Legislature has the right to decide policy through enacting laws, although it struck down a couple of statutes it said interfere with judicial functions.

Attorneys involved said those were only minor matters.

“It is not within the power of this court to invalidate statutes enacted through the reasonable exercise of the Legislature’s constitutional powers,” McDevitt wrote.

Gov. Phil Batt said the ruling makes it much less likely that lawmakers will be recalled to deal with water adjudication questions.

McDevitt said the Legislature has authority to establish procedures for adjudication as long as they do not conflict with court rules.