Eye on Boise: Idaho gay-marriage ban fight tab tops $71,000

Idaho’s legal bill for challenging a federal judge’s decision overturning the state’s ban on gay marriage: $71,477.

Idaho Attorney General Lawrence Wasden’s office reported spending $2,569 for an appellate filing fee and travel for two attorneys to the 9th Circuit arguments last week in San Francisco. Gov. Butch Otter’s office reported spending $68,899, including $66,920 for lawyers.

Monte Neil Stewart argued on behalf of Otter in San Francisco, and requested an emergency stay of U.S. Magistrate Judge Candy Dale’s decision overturning the ban while the state appealed.

Stewart charged the state $250 an hour, with a maximum charge of $50,000 for preparing the briefs and $7,000 for making the arguments.

The amounts don’t include salary costs for state employees who did the work as part of their existing jobs, including attorneys in Wasden’s and Otter’s offices. Cally Younger, an attorney for Otter, said the money for the additional expenses came from the governor’s general fund.

Overlooked history

As the nation celebrates the 50th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act this year, U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commissioner Victoria Lipnic noted a bit of the act’s history that’s largely overlooked today even though it transformed American workplaces.

The act, as originally proposed by President John F. Kennedy in 1963 and then by President Lyndon Johnson in 1964, was all about race. Congress had passed the Equal Pay Act a year earlier, and many felt it dealt with gender discrimination. “No one was contemplating that there would be a provision added into the law that would protect women from discrimination in the workplace,” Lipnic said during a conference in Boise last week.

As the bill progressed through Congress, a Democratic congressman and avowed segregationist from Virginia, Howard Smith, added the amendment to the law. “There was no legislative history, no committee reports, nothing. This was on the floor of the House,” Lipnic said.

Smith’s move was viewed as an attempt at a “poison pill” – a provision so onerous that it would cause the whole bill to fail; he later voted against the bill. But of the 12 women then serving in the House, 11 “rose up to support it,” Lipnic said. “That sisterhood in the House of Representatives then carried the debate.” It passed, 168-133.

When the bill moved on to the Senate, prominent GOP Sen. Everett Dirksen planned to propose an amendment to strip out the sex-discrimination provision. Only two women then served in the Senate; one was Republican Margaret Chase Smith from Maine. She went to a meeting of the Republican caucus, and as the only woman in the room, made such a powerful case that Dirksen decided not to introduce his amendment.

“When that provision was added into the civil rights bill, it transformed the Civil Rights Act to not leave out half of the population, and it revolutionized the workplace,” Lipnic said. “This conference would not be happening today but for the actions of those women in 1964.”

Revenues run ahead

Idaho’s General Fund revenue report for August is in, and state tax revenues topped forecasts by $6.2 million. That brings fiscal year-to-date collections to $462.9 million, $2.9 million ahead of forecasts and 6 percent higher than state tax revenues last year at the same time. Individual income taxes, sales taxes and corporate income taxes all were ahead of forecasts. 

Justice promotes iCivics

Retired U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor says Americans’ level of civic knowledge is appalling, and she’s working to change that with her new iCivics program that teaches about American civics in part through video games.

“Yes, this Arizona cowgirl has actually gotten involved with video games, and it’s working,” said O’Connor, 84. Millions of visitors have now gone to the iCivics website, and more than 65,000 teachers have created accounts. The program includes “some very exciting video games, curriculum units, lesson plans and online fora for student engagement,” she said.

“Less than one-third of eighth-grade students can identify the historical purpose of the Declaration of Independence, and it’s right there in the name,” O’Connor said. “Less than one-fifth of high school seniors can explain how citizen participation benefits democracy.”

Speaking in Boise, she urged everyone to help improve that.

“Get busy,” she said.