As part of the settlement yesterday between the state and Idaho artists and art and theater venues, the 20-day suspension of the liquor license for the Visual Arts Collective in Garden City will be erased and the $8,000 fine it paid will be returned. The VAC was cited after two undercover ISP officers were served alcohol while watching a performance art show there that they said violated Idaho’s liquor and obscenity law; that law has now been permanently barred from being enforced, under the settlement.

“This doesn’t happen often,” said Jack Van Valkenburgh, one of the attorneys in the case. “Within a month of the Idaho State Police extracting $8,000 from the Visual Arts Collective, and suspending their liquor license for 20 days, the police are effectively conceding that the law they’ve been using is unconstitutional.  Consequently, the state is returning the money to VAC and wiping clear its record of having been in violation.  Across the state of Idaho, the police should no longer be prosecuting arts venues and businesses serving alcohol based upon artists’ performances.  This victory is really sweet.”

The settlement puts the lawsuit on hold pending action by the 2017 Idaho Legislature. If it enacts changes to the law that are unconstitutional, the court case would be revived. The settlement prohibits the state from enforcing the law “against any persons operating theaters, concert halls, art centers, museums, event centers, or any other establishments or venues where theatrical or artistic performances are typically offered, and when considered as a whole, and in the context in which it is used, the performances that are presented are expressing matters of serious literary, artistic, scientific, or political value.” It was detailed in a joint motion for a permanent injunction filed by both sides in the case yesterday; you can read it here.