7 Changes I Authored to the ID GOP Platform

A State party platform is something Republicans stand on. A set of principles and policies. The platform is what it means to be Republican.

The Idaho Republican Party platform is a document that has been shaped every two years by over 525 Idaho delegates to the State’s biennial Republican Party convention.

I have been to two conventions as a delegate, 2018 and 2020. During the two conventions I authored, presented and had passed seven changes that were adopted by the entire convention of over 525 delegates into the State party platform.

These changes represent my constitutionally conservative philosophy on federal balance of power, marriage, abortion, guns, medical freedom and judicial elections.

On the Balance of Powers

There is written a constitutional balance of power between the executive, legislative and judicial branches of government, and there is written in the Constitution a balance between State and Federal power.

The State of Idaho should, rarely, disregard the federal courts, when the courts have committed judicial activism outside of their bounds of power. Unfortunately, most Americans think the Supreme Court is the Supreme Ruler, but our founders did not actually write that into our federal Constitution. Therefore, I authored the following changes to the ID GOP Platform to an existing section (my changes are underlined and in red):

Article I. Sec. 5. State Legislature

D. We believe the State of Idaho should strongly assert its sovereignty under the 10th amendment to the U. S. Constitution. It has now come about that the accumulated usurpations by the Federal Government of Idaho’s state sovereignty has reached a point of complete intolerance. The Idaho Republican Party hereby recommends that the Idaho Legislature and Governor nullify any and all existing and future unconstitutional federal mandates, federal court opinions, and laws, funded or unfunded, that infringe on Idaho’s 10th Amendment sovereignty. We also recommend that the State of Idaho continue to request funding and assistance from the Federal Government, which complies with the Constitutional provision of the 10th Amendment, and recommend that the State of Idaho resist the withholding of federal funds as a means of forced compliance with the unconstitutional federal mandates and laws.

On Medical Freedom

Yes, it is a problem in Idaho that hospitals and the State will take control of your child if you don’t follow their medical recommendations. I made the following change to the ID GOP platform in response:

ARTICLE XIII. Health and Welfare

Sec. 2 Patient Protection and Affordable Healthcare Act

F. We support as supreme the authority of parents in all medical decisions for their children, including providers and treatments.

On Marriage

Traditional marriage has been under attack for decades. The State retains constitutional authority over the definition of marriage regardless of the Supreme Court’s opinion, but the State should not be in the marriage license business. In other words, the you should not need permission from the State to marry, and the State is not a party to your marriage:

ARTICLE XIV. American Family

Sec. 2 Traditional Marriage

A. We call upon Idaho government officials and legislators to protect the traditional family and use all means possible to prevent expansion of the definition of marriage beyond that of a bond between one man and one woman. We recognize that the definition of marriage and its administration is not subject to federal authority and that Idaho is authorized to nullify any federal congressional act, federal mandate or court opinion that is contrary to traditional marriage.

B. We recognize traditional marriage without the issuance of a marriage license for those who for religious purposes object to the role of the state in licensing traditional marriage.

On Abortion

Why is abortion wrong? Because it is the unjust killing of an innocent human being. This is a human rights issue, and the convention agreed there is no other way to say this. Therefore I authored the following:

Sec. 3 Right to Life

A. We affirm that abortion is murder from the moment of fertilization. All children should be protected regardless of the circumstances of conception, including persons conceived in rape and incest. The federal judiciary has played the tyrant in dozens of Supreme Court pro-abortion opinions since Roe v. Wade, and Idaho has the sovereign authority to defy the federal judiciary and to criminalize all murders by abortion within the state’s jurisdiction.

On Guns

Either the 2nd Amendment mean you have a right to keep and bear arms without government bans, or it doesn’t. Same goes for Article I, Section 11 of the Idaho Constitution which states “The people have the right to keep and bear arms, which right shall not be abridged”.

Therefore, when considering the 1986 ban on automatic weapons by the United States Congress and President Reagan, the convention adopted the following change that I wrote – this is also a balance of power issue of Congressional overreach and the State needing to interpose itself between the Feds and Idahoans:

ARTICLE XVI. Law and Order with Justice

Sec. 1 Gun Rights

G. We find that the Congress violated the 2nd amendment’s protections in the 1986 Firearms’ Owners Protection Act when the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (BATF) interpreted the Hughes Amendment as a prohibition on the civilian possession of any fully-automatic firearm manufactured after May 19, 1986.

On Judicial Elections

The Idaho Constitution states the people will elect our local district judges. And a judge’s political philosophy does impact their judicial opinions. Therefore, since all people are political, and we elect these judges, let’s know where they align politically. I therefore authored the following platform change that was adopted by the convention into the State’s party platform:

ARTICLE XVIII. Election of Judges and Idaho Supreme Court Justices

The Idaho Republican Party opposes any attempt to undermine the constitutional rights of the people to select judges and justices in an open and competitive election process. We support the election of judges in a partisan election process.

Scott Herndon recaps these changes in the video below: