David Adler, a constitutional law expert and the president of the new Sun Valley Institute, calls the Coeur d’Alene Tribe’s court challenge of the instant racing repeal bill veto “a great constitutional question,” that is “laced with great political questions as well.”

Adler said, “The Idaho Constitution and the applicable statute are very clear, and the governor did not meet the deadline.” Otter wrote a message vetoing the bill on April 3, but didn’t deliver it to the Senate until April 6, two days after the deadline. The Idaho Constitution and state law say if not vetoed within five days – or within 10 days after the Legislature’s session has adjourned for the year – a bill becomes law without the governor’s signature. “It seems pretty clear that there was no valid veto in this instance,” Adler said.

“The Secretary of State seems to be reading into the statute another step that is not at all within the statute, that is that the governor has to authenticate the law,” Adler said. “That claim by the secretary has no foundation in the statute, because the statute simply provides that if the governor does not return the bill within five days, it is authenticated.”

Requiring the governor to take an additional step, outside the time requirements, would give Idaho’s governor considerably more flexibility, changing the balance of power between the legislative and executive branches. “The framers of Idaho’s Constitution decided not to do that,” he said.

Adler also noted that Jennifer Novak, Secretary of the Senate, submitted a formal letter to the Senate, which was entered into the Senate’s official journal on that Monday, stating that she had received other correspondence from the governor over that weekend, but not a veto. “So there’s every reason to believe that if the governor did in fact intend to veto that bill that weekend, his office would have provided that correspondence to the secretary of the Senate as it did with other correspondence,” Adler said.

“It might have been that he found himself in a bind between the difficult decision of whether or not to override his own party, or to disappoint supporters whose own position and interest may well dovetail with his own,” Adler said, but he added, “I can only speculate. … Let’s put it this way: He knows how to veto bills, he’s done it.”

“I think it’s a fascinating case,” Adler said, “and the court will have to rule, I think, expeditiously, because there are a lot of actions and plans hinging on this.”

 Adler is the former director of the Andrus Center at Boise State University and the McClure Center at the University of Idaho; he taught political science at Idaho State University for 25 years, is the author or co-author of five books, and has published more than 100 scholarly articles on the Constitution. Now, he’s heading the new institute and also teaching as an adjunct professor for the U of I. Adler said the institute is a new nonprofit dedicated to civic education, civic dialogue and civic engagement. It will hold a conference titled “Conversations with Exceptional Women” in Sun Valley Sept. 17-18. “It’s my desire to promote civic education and broader knowledge of the Constitution, promote a more engaged citizenry,” Adler said.

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