Categories
Opinions / Op-eds

Is Idaho Quietly Defunding the Sheriff?

And what happens to Idaho if the office collapses? This started with one question in Horseshoe Bend Last Tuesday at the “Meet the Representatives” town hall in Horseshoe Bend, I asked a question based on direct work with Idaho sheriffs. I told the room I have interviewed sheriffs across the state, and they are all […]

Categories
Opinions / Op-eds

The Grocery Tax Debate

Stand Up For Idaho is a non-profit organization that holds weekly town hall meetings to inform and educate the public. It also has both a YouTube and Rumble site where video recorded meetings can be viewed. At a recent town hall meeting, hosted by Jolyn Thomas from KID Newsradio, a discussion was held on the […]

Categories
Opinions / Op-eds

American Exceptionalism Squandered

The year 2026, this year, marks the 250th Anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. While the Founding generation sought for and prayed for prosperity and a land of liberty for themselves and their posterity and even understood the scope of what a nation blessed with liberty could accomplish, at least to some degree, they could […]

Categories
Opinions / Op-eds

Fraud is a Feature

Is there a functional difference between socialism and fraud? “To protect these rights, governments are created among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed” The Declaration of Independence enumerates the proper roll of government, to protect the rights of the governed. As citizens we pay taxes to establish systems designed to […]

Categories
Opinions / Op-eds

AG Labrador to Defend School Choice Tax Credit Before Idaho Supreme Court

BOISE, ID — On Friday, attorneys in the Office of Attorney General will argue in defense of Idaho’s School Choice Tax Credit before the Idaho Supreme Court. The hearing follows a legal challenge brought by the Idaho Education Association and others seeking to block Idaho families’ ability to use these tax credits to choose the best […]

Categories
Opinions / Op-eds

Immigration, John Quincy Adams to Ayaan Hirsi Ali

The Statue of Liberty features the inscription: Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,I lift my lamp beside the golden door! These words by Emma Lazarus have inspired Americans and the oppressed around the world. Many came, […]

Categories
Opinions / Op-eds

Labrador Letter: Idaho’s Fight for Women’s Sports Reaches the Supreme Court

Dear Friends, This week, Idaho had its day before the United States Supreme Court. More than five years after we became the first state in the nation to pass a law protecting women’s sports from biological males, nine justices heard oral arguments in Little v. Hecox. I’m incredibly proud of my legal team for representing Idaho […]

Categories
Opinions / Op-eds

Idaho Defends Fairness in Women’s Sports Act at U.S. Supreme Court

WASHINGTON, DC — Yesterday, the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Little v. Hecox, Idaho’s landmark case defending the Fairness in Women’s Sports Act, the first-in-the-nation law protecting female athletes from competing against biological males. Idaho Solicitor General Alan Hurst argued before the nine justices, defending the state’s authority to maintain sex-separated athletics based on biological […]

Categories
Opinions / Op-eds

Continuity Of Government

“Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes…”. “But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to […]

Categories
Opinions / Op-eds

Fulcher on House Passage of Next Round of Appropriations Bills

Jan 14, 2026 WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Congressman Russ Fulcher (Idaho-01) issued the following statement after the House of Representatives advanced H.R. 7006, the Financial Services and General Government (FSGG) and National Security, Department of State, and Related Programs (NSRP) Appropriations Act, 2026. “Restoring fiscal responsibility in Washington, D.C., starts with Congress returning to regular order,” said Congressman […]

Categories
Opinions / Op-eds

A Very Republican Gathering

The 2026 IDGOP Winter Meeting was high energy and low drama. Twice a year, summer and winter, the 228 members of the Idaho Republican Party State Central Committee meet to conduct party business. The 2026 Winter Meeting was last weekend in Meridian Idaho. The Idaho Republican State Central Committee (SCC) is comprised of four representatives […]

Categories
Opinions / Op-eds

AG Labrador Secures Court Order Ending Yearslong Block on Idaho’s Birth Certificate Law

BOISE, ID — Attorney General Raúl Labrador announced today that a federal court agreed to dissolve a 2018 injunction that blocked Idaho from enforcing state law requiring birth certificates to accurately reflect biological sex at birth. Chief U.S. Magistrate Judge Raymond E. Patricco granted Attorney General Labrador’s motion, allowing Idaho’s Department of Health and Welfare to […]

Gem State Patriot News