Boise Man Planning To Form Court Of His Peers Says Idaho Supreme Court Unconstitutional; State Official Disagrees
Boise resident Gary DeMott feels so strongly that the Idaho Supreme Court is unconstitutional that he spent more than $300 on a weekend newspaper ad declaring the creation of his own court.
DeMott ran a 36-square-inch ad in the legal notice section of The Idaho Statesman on Saturday, announcing formation of “Court of Justice, Common Law Venue, Supreme Court.”
State legal officials say that’s fine, people have the right to form any organization they want for lawful purposes.
“No laws are violated by creating it,” said Deputy Attorney General William von Tagen. “If they try to enforce any order, that’s another matter.”“At this stage, I don’t know that there’s any action that we could take under the law.”
DeMott won’t say what will follow creation of his citizen supreme court. “You will know when it happens,” he said.
It’s an idea that’s apparently widespread in Idaho. Von Tagen said the attorney general’s office has received word that legal notices creating other “supreme courts” in Idaho have been published in the Rexburg area, Lincoln and Gooding counties and in North Idaho.
DeMott claims there are no constitutional courts in Idaho.
“This is to give an alternative to our current system,” he said Thursday. “There is not a constitutionally created court in the state. We are restoring an alternative.”
The man on the street might have trouble understanding what DeMott’s doing.
His Rule 5: “Our Supreme Court justices’ sitting en banc as King’s Bench with twelve Justices’ in purview of Chapter 45 of Magna Charta.”
He also throws in a few Latin words and phrases such as prothonotary, praecipe, procedendo and teste meipso that had even Statehouse lawyers wondering what they meant.
It’s not altogether new to Von Tagen. After he prosecuted some individuals for violations of the law, they tried to form a “citizen grand jury” to file complaints against him and 4th District Judge Deborah Bail.
Von Tagen said things such as DeMott’s proclamation just confuse people.
“It’s just nonsense. It doesn’t have any legal status.”