Three Branches, Idaho Style

Most Idahoans learned about three branches from the federal model. Idaho uses the same idea, but its 1889 framers built the parts differently. They wrote the separation rule down in plain words. They kept the Legislature short and part-time. They split the executive among several officials the voters choose one by one. And they made judges answer to the voters, not to the governor who first appointed them.

This lesson walks through each branch as the Idaho Constitution sets it up, then looks at real fights over the lines between them: a 2015 veto that arrived too late, a 2021 standoff over whether the Legislature had gone home, an acting governor's one-day order, and a 2026 ballot dispute. Quotations of constitutional text come from the official text on the Legislature's website.

Article II: Idaho writes the wall down

The federal Constitution separates powers by structure. It puts legislative power in Article I, executive power in Article II and judicial power in Article III, and leaves the rest to inference. Idaho's framers did not leave it to inference. Article II has a single section:

The powers of the government of this state are divided into three distinct departments, the legislative, executive and judicial; and no person or collection of persons charged with the exercise of powers properly belonging to one of these departments shall exercise any powers properly belonging to either of the others, except as in this constitution expressly directed or permitted.

Idaho Const. art. II, sec. 1

Two parts matter in practice. The first is the ban itself: a legislator cannot do the governor's job, a governor cannot legislate, and neither can decide cases. The second is the exception clause. The Constitution itself mixes the powers in specific places. The governor takes part in lawmaking through the veto. The Senate takes part in executive appointments by confirming them. The lieutenant governor, an executive officer, presides over the Senate. Those overlaps are legal because the Constitution "expressly" directs them. Anything else that crosses the line has to find its permission somewhere in the text, or it is open to challenge.

When an Idaho official says something "violates separation of powers," this is the clause they mean. It is enforceable, but it is also an argument people reach for after losing a political fight, so ask: which power, which branch, and where does the Constitution say otherwise?

The Legislature: part-time by design

Article III vests "the legislative power of the state" in a Senate and a House of Representatives (art. III, sec. 1). The same section reserves the initiative and referendum to the people, which is the subject of Lesson 6.

Size, terms and districts

• 35 senators, and a House that the Legislature may set at no more than twice the number of senators (art. III, sec. 2). In practice that means 70 representatives, two per district.
• 35 legislative districts (art. III, sec. 4), drawn by a six-member citizen redistricting commission after each census (art. III, sec. 2).
• Two-year terms for both houses, starting December 1 after the general election (art. III, sec. 3).
• Pay set by a citizens committee, not by legislators. Since the Legislature "shall have no authority to establish the rate of its compensation," a six-member committee (three appointed by the governor, three by the Supreme Court) sets it every two years, and lawmakers may only reject or reduce it (art. III, sec. 23).

When it meets, and who can make it come back

Regular sessions start on the second Monday of January each year (art. III, sec. 8). The Constitution does not set an end date. Sessions usually end in late March or April, when both houses adjourn sine die (without a day set to return).

For most of Idaho's history, only the governor could bring lawmakers back. Article IV, section 9 lets the governor convene the Legislature "on extraordinary occasions" by proclamation, and limits that session to the subjects the proclamation names (art. IV, sec. 9). Governor Brad Little used that power on September 1, 2022, for a one-day special session with one bill on the agenda. House Bill 1 cut income taxes, sent rebates and dedicated sales tax money to schools; it passed both houses and was signed that evening (Idaho Capital Sun).

Voters added a second door in November 2022. Article III, section 8(2) now says the Legislature, "while remaining a part-time, citizen legislature," must be convened in special session by the Senate president pro tempore and the House speaker when they receive a joint written petition from at least 60 percent of the members of each house, naming the subjects. The session must start within 15 days and is limited to the subjects in the petition. That amendment, Senate Joint Resolution 102, was approved with roughly 52 percent of the vote (Idaho Capital Sun). It grew out of the clash described next.

The executive: seven officials, one ballot each

Article IV, section 1 lists the executive department: "a governor, lieutenant governor, secretary of state, state controller, state treasurer, attorney general and superintendent of public instruction," each elected to a four-year term (art. IV, sec. 1). All seven are chosen statewide by the voters (art. IV, sec. 2). This is a plural executive: instead of one elected chief and a Cabinet serving at his pleasure, as in Washington, Idaho has seven executives, each with an independent mandate.

Office	Where the Constitution gives it a role
Governor	"Supreme executive power," duty to see that laws are faithfully executed (art. IV, sec. 5); appointments with Senate consent (sec. 6); state of the state message and budget estimates (sec. 8); special sessions (sec. 9); veto (secs. 10 and 11)
Lieutenant governor	President of the Senate, votes only to break a tie (art. IV, sec. 13); acts as governor when the governor is absent from the state or unable to serve (sec. 12)
Secretary of state, state controller, state treasurer	Duties "prescribed by this Constitution and as may be prescribed by law" (sec. 1); the controller may not perform post-audit functions
Attorney general	Must be at least 30 and admitted to practice in Idaho (art. IV, sec. 3)
Superintendent of public instruction	Sits on the State Board of Land Commissioners (art. IX, sec. 7); education role covered in Lesson 7

The Constitution also forces these officials to govern together. The governor, superintendent, secretary of state, attorney general and controller make up the State Board of Land Commissioners, which controls the state's endowment lands (art. IX, sec. 7). The governor, secretary of state and attorney general make up the Board of Examiners, which must review claims against the state before the Legislature can pass on them (art. IV, sec. 18). Even pardons are not the governor's alone: a board created by law grants commutations and pardons, after public notice and a hearing in open session, while the governor may grant only temporary reprieves (art. IV, sec. 7).

The veto and the five-day clock

Every bill goes to the governor before it becomes law. Article IV, section 10 gives three outcomes:

• Sign it, and it becomes law.
• Veto it by returning it, with objections, to the house where it started. Each house can override by two-thirds of the members present, on a recorded yea and nay vote.
• Do nothing. Any bill which "shall not be returned by the governor to the legislature within five days (Sundays excepted) after it shall have been presented to him, shall become a law in like manner as if he had signed it." If the Legislature has adjourned and that prevents the return, the governor instead has ten days after adjournment (Sundays excepted) to file the veto with the secretary of state, or the bill becomes law.

Any bill which shall not be returned by the governor to the legislature within five days (Sundays excepted) after it shall have been presented to him, shall become a law in like manner as if he had signed it, unless the legislature shall, by adjournment, prevent its return, in which case it shall be filed, with his objections, in the office of the secretary of state within ten days after such adjournment (Sundays excepted) or become a law.

Idaho Const. art. IV, sec. 10

Note the difference from the federal rule. A president who does nothing while Congress is adjourned can "pocket veto" a bill. Idaho has no pocket veto: if the governor does nothing, the bill becomes law.

For spending bills, the governor has more. Article IV, section 11 lets the governor "disapprove of any item or items of any bill making appropriations of money embracing distinct items." The rest of the bill becomes law, and each vetoed item can be overridden separately. This line-item veto applies only to appropriations, not to ordinary policy bills (art. IV, sec. 11).

The judiciary: elected judges, one unified system

Article V vests judicial power in a court for the trial of impeachments, a Supreme Court, district courts, and "such other courts inferior to the Supreme Court as established by the legislature," all forming "a unified and integrated judicial system for administration and supervision by the Supreme Court" (art. V, sec. 2). The Court of Appeals, which shares the nonpartisan judicial ballot, is one of the courts the Legislature has created under that clause.

How judges get and keep the job

• Supreme Court: five justices, elected statewide for six-year terms; the justices choose a chief justice from among themselves for a four-year term (art. V, sec. 6).
• District judges: elected by the voters of their judicial district for four-year terms (art. V, sec. 11).
• Nonpartisan ballot: the Constitution itself requires it. Article VI, section 7 says the selection of Supreme Court justices and district judges "shall be nonpartisan," that candidates may not be nominated or endorsed by a political party, and that no party designation may appear with their names on the ballot. Idaho Code 34-905 carries this out with "a single nonpartisan ballot" for Supreme Court justices, Court of Appeals judges and district judges (34-905).
• Vacancies: when a judge leaves mid-term, the governor fills the seat by appointment "as provided by law" (art. IV, sec. 6). By statute, the Idaho Judicial Council screens applicants and sends the governor three or four names, and the governor appoints one (Idaho Code 1-2102). The appointee then faces the voters.
• No recall: every public officer in Idaho is subject to recall "excepting the judicial officers" (art. VI, sec. 6). Judges answer to voters at the end of a term, and to the discipline and removal system the Legislature sets up (art. V, sec. 28), not to mid-term petitions.

Why the big fights go straight to the Supreme Court

Article V, section 9 gives the Idaho Supreme Court "original jurisdiction to issue writs of mandamus, certiorari, prohibition, and habeas corpus." That means a party can sometimes skip the district court and file directly with the justices. The court uses this sparingly, but it has said it will take a case directly when a petition "alleges sufficient facts concerning a possible constitutional violation of an urgent nature" (quoted in Coeur d'Alene Tribe v. Denney; see art. V, sec. 9). That is how the horse racing veto case, the 2021 initiative case in Lesson 6, and several recent ballot disputes reached the court in weeks rather than years.

What the Legislature can and cannot do to the courts

Article V, section 13 says the Legislature "shall have no power to deprive the judicial department of any power or jurisdiction which rightly pertains to it as a coordinate department of the government." The Legislature may set up appeals and regulate procedure in the lower courts, and the same section lets it set mandatory minimum sentences that judges cannot reduce (art. V, sec. 13).