Thanks to the work of the Panda Idaho, an Idaho house committee passed the Restoring Constitutional Governance Act, H473, by a vote of 11-2 on February 20, 2018. This legislation, drafted by the Patriot Coalition, is the strongest in the nation as it explicitly prohibits the laws of war from being used on non-soldiers in Idaho, and Idaho citizens anywhere, and will punish any person, including Federal or international agents, who attempts to utilize those powers.
Introduced by State Rep. Bryan Zollinger, H473 would ban the state of Idaho from enforcing sections 1021 and 1022 of the 2012 National Defense Authorization Act. These sections purport to give authority to the federal government to indefinitely detain anyone, anywhere – without charge or trial. This bill also covers indefinite detention without due process authorized under “any similar law or authority enacted or claimed by Congress or the President.”
The bill garnered a large number of cosponsors, including Representatives Judy Boyle, Barbara Ehardt, Priscilla Giddings, Karey Hanks, Paulette Jordan, Dorothy Moon, Ron Nate, Heather Scott, and Christy Zito.
The bill was drafted by the Founder of People Against the NDAA (Panda), Daniel Johnson, along with the National Director, Legislative Affairs, Patriot Coalition, Jeff Lewis, and General Counsel, Patriot Coalition, Richard D Fry.
The bill states:
“It is the Determination of the Idaho legislature that Idaho is not a battlefield subject to the laws of war and that neither congress nor the president of the United States can constitutionally apply the laws of war to any person in Idaho or citizen of Idaho…”
“…it is unlawful, for any person to do any one (1) of the following:
- Arrest or capture any person in Idaho or any citizen of Idaho under the law of war;
- Actually subject a person in Idaho to disposition under the law of war; or
- Use deadly force under the laws of war against any person in Idaho, or intentionally subject any citizen of Idaho for targeted killing or murder…”
“Any person who commits a violation of this section shall be prosecuted under the Idaho criminal code relating to the substantive law for which the violation pertains including, but not limited to, assault, battery, kidnapping or murder.”
If this bill passes into law, Idaho would become the sixth state to take steps to stop indefinite detention, joining Alaska, California, Michigan, New Hampshire, and Virginia. Several local governments have passed similar legislation in the state of Idaho as well including Emmett, Middleton, Gem County, and Bonner County.
“The indefinite detention provisions of the 2012 NDAA authorize violating over half of the Bill of Rights. Legislators that don’t have time to support HB-473 don’t have time to support the Bill of Rights. As a citizen that votes, that’s all I need to know.” Said Lewis.
“It is truly great to see this important legislation move forward especially on the heels of yet another anniversary of the executive order signed on February 19, 1942 which paved the way for “NDAA style” detention of 120,000 American citizens of Japanese, Italian, and German decent,” Casella said. “With H473, Idaho has a chance to join several states to head this off and avoid repeating a horrible mistake in American history.”
All of these states are following James Madison’s blueprint for stopping federal overreach. In Federalist 46, he argued that a “refusal to comply with officers of the Union” along with other actions at the state and local level would create a situation where the federal government would have an almost impossible time enforcing their acts. When several states join together and do the same, Madison said it would “present obstructions which the federal government would hardly be willing to encounter.”
H473 moves on to a full house vote as early as the end of this week or beginning of next week. Check PANDA’s Facebook Page for updates.
We don’t need more law. We have enough. A political statement demanding return to the Bill of Rights would garnered a lot more attention.
yes. No sense in writing new laws to prohibit illegal ones that never should have been written in the first place.
I like the legal system that’s outlined in the Bill of Rights, too.
Idaho will have no roads paved this year due to a withdrawal of federal funding. By the way can we post images of the two dissenting votes at the post offices..?
yeah….WANTED posters on their bulletin board with the rest of the crooks.