Will the Idaho Legislature convene a “Red Dawn” special session on June 23, 2020?

I doubt it. That claim is being made by a political action committee called Freedom Man on a web page titled Everything You Need to Know About the Special Legislative Session on June 23 rd in Boise, ID. A Facebook post from Health Freedom Idaho also claims there will be a special session. (Red Dawn is a 1984 alternate-history war movie about a Soviet invasion of Colorado).

You would expect the leaders of the House (Speaker Scott Bedke) and Senate (President Pro Tempore Brent Hill) would need to head such an effort. But Mr. Bedke already has declined, based on a legal Memorandum dated June 8, 2020. Freedom Man instead refers to another Legal Memorandum dated June 11, 2020 written by two lawyers at a Phoenix law firm called Statecraft. On June 12, 2020 at the Idaho Freedom Foundation there was an article by Wayne Hoffman titled Little’s property tax relief plan shines as he ponders new handouts that also referenced the Statecraft memo.

The Statecraft memo quotes the ‘relevant part’ of section 27 from Article III of the Idaho Constitution shown above but omits the part I have outlined in red. But an argument based upon omitting one of two items connected by the conjunction ‘and’ is blatant nonsense. (I suspect that neither Freedom Man nor Hoffman looked up that section). There is no lack of continuity, and no temporary succession is needed. Also, there already was a press release by the Governor on March 16, 2020 titled Governor, Legislature advance additional $1.3 million to ensure continuity of essential government service amid coronavirus. Our part-time Legislature finished their session on March 20, 2020, and left the Governor alone to deal with the pandemic mess. The legislature has no right to second guess him later on.

  
More on the plans for tomorrow is in an article by Betsey Russell in the Idaho Press titled Far-right lawmakers to try to hold own special session despite law, Constitution. There is another article at IdahoEdNews by Kevin Richert titled Little's critics organize 'special session' of legislature. But will it even be a session?