Jeremy Chou, attorney for the Coeur d’Alene Tribe, told lawmakers that the question of whether the current law is constitutional already has been answered in an Idaho Supreme Court case. In the Knox case, the plaintiffs sued to try to declare the current law unconstitutional. “The plaintiffs were not successful in that case,” he said. “As far as the Idaho state court is concerned, this is controlling precedent.”

He added, “The state of Idaho goes in once a year to make sure that they are compliant with those conditions. … The state of Idaho gets to go in and enforce, and they’ve done that in the past. … The current system works.”

So a court would ask why the Legislature would have passed HB 127. “Uncertainty in my business means lawsuits,” he said.