House Bill H0265

2015 Freedom Index Score: (+2)

Analyst: Parrish Miller
Date of analysis: March 18, 2015

ANALYST'S NOTE: House Bill 265 enacts and enters the state of Idaho into the Interstate Compact on
the Transfer of Public Lands. This compact will allow western states to join together to study, collect
data, and develop political and legal mechanisms for securing the transfer to the respective member
states of certain specially identified federally controlled public lands within the respective member state
boundaries.

Point No. 11 Does it violate the spirit or the letter of either the US Constitution or the Idaho
Constitution? Examples include restrictions on speech, public assembly, the press, privacy, private
property, or firearms. Conversely, does it restore or uphold the protections guaranteed in US Constitution
or the Idaho Constitution?
ANALYSIS: House Bill 265 creates Chapter 15, Title 58, Idaho Code, to declare that "the
Interstate Compact on the Transfer of Public Lands is hereby enacted and entered into with all
other jurisdictions that can legally join in the compact." The compact calls for western states to
join together "to study, collect data, and develop political and legal mechanisms for securing the
transfer to the respective member states of certain specially identified federally controlled
public lands within the respective member state boundaries." While this is an early step in the
process to bring about the transfer of federal land, it is an important step, nonetheless. Not only
would the transfer bring the federal government into closer alignment with the Constitution,
but it could also help to reduce the western state's dependency on federal funds. (+1)

Point No. 12 Does it violate the principles of federalism by increasing federal authority, yielding to
federal blandishments, or incorporating changeable federal laws into Idaho statutes or rules? Examples
include citing federal code without noting as it is written on a certain date, using state resources to
enforce federal law, and refusing to support and uphold the Tenth Amendment. Conversely, does it
restore or uphold the principles of federalism?

ANALYSIS: The compact entered into under Chapter 15, Title 58, Idaho Code, serves to promote
the concept and practice of federalism. Its opening paragraphs read as follows:
"Whereas, the separation of powers, both between the branches of the federal
government and between federal and state authority, is essential to the preservation of
individual liberty;
Whereas, the Constitution of the United States creates a federal government of limited
and enumerated powers and reserves to the states or to the people those powers not expressly
granted to the federal government to protect the liberty of individual property incidental to the
sovereignty and the health, safety, and welfare of its citizens;
Whereas, each state adopting and agreeing to be bound by this compact finds that the
coordinated, regular, institutional exercise of its sovereign power under its respective
constitution and the Constitution of the United States is an essential component of the
governing partnership between the states and the federal government.
NOW, THEREFORE, the states hereto resolve and, by the adoption into law under their
respective state constitutions of this Interstate Compact on the Transfer of Public Lands, agree,
as follows:"
The notion of federalism requires that the federal government not be empowered to dictate its
will to the individual states. This concept requires not only that states control their own
territory, but that states have their own sources of funding rather than be dependent on the
federal government. The transfer of public lands is a necessary component of restoring
federalism in this country. (+1)