West Views: Constitutional regrets have a long half-life, and Idaho hasn’t learned its lesson

By the 1970s, Idaho had a problem it could no longer ignore. Since 1890, its constitution had proclaimed that Mormons, Chinese, people of Mongolian descent and Indians who “had not severed their tribal relations” could not vote or hold public office.

It was virtually unenforceable under the U.S. Constitution, but it took a 1908 Idaho Supreme Court ruling to render it entirely invalid.

In the years that followed, Idahoans went about cleaning up their state charter with a series of amendments. But the troubling language about Mormons remained on the books.

When anybody asked why, he got this response: Leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints were nervous about how ordinary Idahoans might vote on such an amendment.

By 1982, Idaho had its first Mormon governor, John V. Evans, who was seeking re-election. And by the required two-thirds margin, the Idaho House and Senate placed before the voters an amendment wiping the anti-Mormon provision from the Idaho Constitution.

Nearly 192,000 Idahoans voted yes.

But 100,113 said no.

A ringing endorsement of human rights, it was not. As embarrassed Idahoans pored over the results, they found the following:

→  Nez Perce County: 3,870, nearly 40 percent, said official discrimination against Mormons was just fine with them.

→  Kootenai County: 7,045, more than 40 percent, used their vote as a weapon.

→  Latah County: 3,225, or 35 percent, followed suit.

→  Ada County, the state’s most populous: 19,868 no votes, or 34 percent.

Even in Mormon-dominated Eastern Idaho, the numbers were disappointing.

In Madison County, 950 — one of every five votes cast — went on record against the amendment. In Bonneville County, nearly 28 percent voted no.

This is no mere footnote. The 100,000 who cast their mean-spirited vote produced a bitter epilogue to another troubled piece of Idaho history.

Here we have Idaho.

Here we go again.

As Kimberlee Kruesi of The Associated Press noted, that tale serves as a backdrop for what awaits Idaho’s constitutional ban on same-sex marriage.

In a landmark ruling, the U.S. Supreme Court declared marriage to be a fundamental right guaranteed to all Americans. It is the law of the land in all 50 states, regardless of what’s in a state’s constitution.

What does Idaho do now?

Maintain an outlaw constitutional provision?

Advocates, such as the American Civil Liberties Union’s acting executive director, Leo Morales, think the provision should be repealed, however difficult that would be.

“It’s the right thing to do,” Morales said.

Try it, says Cornerstone Family Council Executive Director Julie Lynde, and there will be a fight.

“There is no reason to obliterate traditional marriage,” Lynde said.

So far, it’s an esoteric argument. Lawmakers aren’t going to take it up, not when they’re about to face a closed Republican primary election in 10 months.

“My opinion is that no legislative action is required,” said Senate Majority Leader Bart Davis, R-Idaho Falls.

So here are the choices Idaho faces:

Kick this can down the road one or two or even three decades. Wait until evolving public opinion makes repeal a certainty. Then hope Idaho isn’t the last state in the union to erase what future generations will recognize as another blemish on the state’s record.

Or hand it over to a state Legislature that just nine years earlier rounded up a two-thirds vote in favor of passing that same amendment. If lawmakers fail to act, you’ve just compounded the damage to the state’s reputation.

Or put it on the ballot and hope against hope that conventional wisdom about conservative Idaho voters is wrong.

Worst-case scenario: Whipped into a frenzy about tradition and states’ rights by the culture wars, Idahoans repeat their error.

Best-case scenario: The repeal passes, but so narrowly that the margin of no votes continues to get mentioned even 30 years after the fact.

All of which simply tells you what voters should have known in 2006: Prejudice dies out with the generations that embrace it.

Prejudice etched into a state constitution is permanent.

What’s sad is Idahoans didn’t learn their lesson the first time.