Yet Another Idaho Flag Bill Passes Without Enforcement Measures
By Greg Pruett • April 21, 2025As debate over Boise’s LGBT flag intensifies, another recently passed flag-related bill in the Idaho Legislature also lacks a clear enforcement mechanism.
What’s Happening
Following Idaho Attorney General Raul Labrador’s statement that HB 96 cannot be legally defended due to the absence of enforcement provisions, Idaho Dispatch was told of another bill—HB 41—that appears to have similar shortcomings.
Digging Deeper
HB 41 restricts the types of flags and banners that may be displayed in K–12 public schools. While the bill designates the Idaho State Department of Education (ISDE) as the enforcing authority, it does not outline any penalties for noncompliance.
Schools found in violation are simply “required to remove unauthorized flags or banners”, with no further consequences specified. While the ISDE could potentially establish its own penalties for violations, such measures would not carry criminal implications.
The bill was approved by the House with a vote of 59–11 and cleared the Senate 29–6.
Tags: Flag Bills, HB 41, HB 96, Idaho Department of Education, Lauren McLean, LGBT Flag, Raul Labrador
From now on, all laws that legislators want enforced must have consequences for failure to follow them. Otherwise, they are mere suggestions.
Some legislators might fear their bills won’t pass if they include reasonable enforcement measures. So legislators must carefully consider whether they want their laws to be enforced. If not, the laws probably should be resolutions or memorials — or not proposed at all.
An extremely slippery slope…until our legislators step up to the proverbial plate and tackle these various issues with the accompanying enforcement measures needed it should be painfully obvious that there will always be those (sometimes high ranking individuals as we’ve seen recently) who will thumb their nose at them. Personally, I am aligning with those who feel that without enforcement capability these bills unfortunately are simply perceived as a joke. Very frustrating jokes at that…
This is a obviously a ‘nothing burger’ to the legislature, our demo gov and the venerated chair moon. shut up prol.