BOISE, Idaho — This article originally appeared in the Idaho Press.
The Idaho Legislature has now spent more than $330,000 on its private legal team defending the state’s abortion laws against multiple lawsuits, in addition to the defense of the laws provided by the state attorney general’s office.
The taxpayer-funded bill has reached $331,611.60 so far, according to records obtained under the Idaho Public Records Act. State House and Senate GOP leaders hired Nampa attorney Daniel Bower and Las Vegas attorney Monte Neil Stewart to argue on the Legislature’s behalf in three lawsuits brought to the Idaho Supreme Court by Planned Parenthood and one in federal court filed by the Department of Justice.
Stewart and Bower are being paid $375 an hour plus expenses.
The money for the outside lawyers comes from the Legislative Legal Defense Fund, which was created in 2012. House Speaker Scott Bedke and Senate President Pro Tem Chuck Winder have sole authority under the law to make expenditures from the fund.
The laws being challenged are the 2020 “trigger” law, which was triggered to take effect when the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe V. Wade and made all abortions in Idaho felonies; the 2021 law banning abortions after six weeks, known as the “heartbeat” ban; and the 2022 Texas-style law that authorizes relatives of a fetus aborted after six weeks to sue doctors or other health care providers.
As of Dec. 30, no filings had been made since late October in the three lawsuits in the state Supreme Court. The last court filing in the the Department of Justice challenge against the trigger law was Dec. 14, according to court records; it was about two deputy attorneys general withdrawing from the case.
This article originally appeared in the Idaho Press, read more on IdahoPress.com.
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