Can Idaho pass a bill banning Boise’s Pride flag? What to know
Idaho lawmakers advanced a bill to prevent Boise from flying the Pride flag, but it would allow cities to fly other banners as long as they weren’t religious, ideological or political.
The bill, from Rep. Ted Hill, R-Eagle, is an attempt to close a loophole that Boise found after lawmakers in 2025 passed a law banning most flags from flying on government property. Ahead of the 2025 vote on that law, legislators were given pictures of Boise Pride flags.
The current law only allows flags like the U.S. or state flags, other countries’ flags for special occasions or official city flags. Boise’s City Council voted to make the Pride flag and an organ donor flag official city flags to satisfy the law’s requirements.
“You can’t pick some groups and not others,” Hill said in the House on Thursday. “That’s really important. It’s fair.”
The Idaho House of Representatives passed the bill 58-11, with three Republicans joining every Democrat present in opposing the bill. It now awaits a hearing in a Senate committee.
This is Hill’s second attempt in 2026 to prevent Boise from flying the Pride flag. His first bill would have banned cities and counties from flying official flags, but lawmakers balked at that approach.
This bill would allow city and county flags if they were established as of Jan. 1, 2023. Hill amended the bill to allow nonpolitical flags after lawmakers raised concerns about the bill preventing flags that celebrate local graduates or 4-H. He also added a carve-out for the Basque flag.
Boise wasn’t the only city to get around the law. Bonners Ferry in North Idaho declared a year-round special occasion to keep flying the Canadian flag, which Rep. Mark Sauter, R-Sandpoint, spoke about on Thursday.
“The city of Bonners Ferry has flown the Canadian flag for 50-plus years, every day,” said Sauter, before voting against the bill. “I see no problem having a Canadian flag fly there, and neither do the residents.”
Boise Democrat Rep. Ilana Rubel criticized the intent of the bill, saying it had “transparently been an effort to ban one flag,” the Pride flag hung by the city of Boise.
“We have seen this body doing wild contortions to try to somehow make it appear as something other than that,” Rubel said. “Because passing a bill to just say the city of Boise can’t pass a Pride flag would be clearly unconstitutional.”
The bill as written is likely valid, said Benji Cover, a law professor at the University of Idaho. If a court looked at the bill, the judges would see the government regulating its own speech, he said. Courts often view local and state governments as one entity, he said.
“It has to be not political, not religious and not ideological,” Cover said. “I think that (the bill) would prohibit a flag, banner or pennant that was in favor of a particular … politician or a political party. I think that it would equally prohibit a flag, banner or pennant that was opposed to a particular politician, candidate, political party.”
Cover pointed to a 2015 Supreme Court case from Texas, where a group called the Sons of Confederate Veterans sued after the state denied its request for a specialty license plate. In a 5-4 decision, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the government could choose the content of its speech, according to Oyez, a Supreme Court database.
Cover said the law gives boundaries for the city to operate in but doesn’t require the city to fly certain flags.
In a hearing on Hill’s bill, one constituent said she had asked Boise to fly an Israeli flag to commemorate the founding of the Middle Eastern country. Boise spokesperson Maria Ortega said the city was not taking requests to fly any other flags.
