Amaro deemed eligible to run

Rami Amaro is still in the race for district judge.

Idaho Secretary of State Ben Ysursa said Thursday the Hayden woman meets the eligibility requirements for the District 1 judge’s race.

“It’s not a surprise to me,” Amaro said Thursday evening. “I already knew unequivocally that I was not only qualified to run, but I was qualified for the office.”

The 37-year-old attorney from Hayden is challenging incumbent 1st District Judge John Mitchell.

Ysursa’s letter was in response to an inquiry Amaro made herself regarding the required experience for district judge candidates. The statute says candidates “shall have been admitted to the practice of law for 10 years.”

Hayden Lake resident Joy Richards officially challenged Amaro’s eligibility Wednesday, saying she believed Amaro “misrepresented herself” by counting two years when she was an inactive member of the Ohio State Bar.

The Ohio State Supreme Court says inactive members of the bar “may not practice law in Ohio or hold themselves out to practice law in Ohio.”

Amaro said she was admitted to the Ohio State Bar in 1996, but was on “inactive” status for two years because she had young children and was battling cancer. Inactive attorneys can’t practice law on behalf of anyone but themselves, Amaro said, and that’s what she did.

She said she “practiced extensively” on behalf of a business she owned with her husband and represented both of them in a lawsuit against a builder.

Ysursa on Thursday said the law “makes no distinction between the membership statuses of attorneys who are admitted to the practice of law.”

Richards said she believes the wording of the law – “have been admitted to the practice of law for 10 years” – can be interpreted different ways.

“It depends on whether you emphasize ‘admitted’ or ‘practiced,’” Richards said. “Literally, she has complied. Has she practiced law for 10 years? Not in my interpretation.”

She said she is glad she challenged Amaro’s qualifications.

“It is an issue that will have to be brought up through the legislative arena,” Richards said. “I don’t think the Legislature would agree all you have to do is pass a bar exam and not enter a courtroom or file a complaint for 10 years and you can be a judge.”

Amaro said she believes questions were raised about her eligibility as part of a “smear campaign” and “an attempt to distract voters from real issues.”

“My opponent’s supporters misinterpreted this law so dramatically,” she said. “I was attacked in a manner that was not right.”