Silly Republican state law turns Idaho into a flag police state | Opinion

It turns out that the Idaho Republican legislators’ attempt to dictate which flags cities can and cannot fly is running into more challenges.

Of course, it should come as no surprise that when you try to control others’ actions unnecessarily, you’re going to meet resistance.

During the 2025 session, Idaho Republican legislators passed and Gov. Brad Little signed House Bill 96, which limited what types of flags government entities could display.

Flags that are OK include: the United States flag; the official flag of a governmental entity; official flags of any state; official flags of any of the military branches; the POW/MIA flag; official flags of Native American tribes; official flags of other countries to commemorate special occasions; and official flags of Idaho colleges, universities, and public schools.

Everything else is verboten.

The city of Boise has run afoul of that law by flying a Pride flag and an organ donor flag, in apparent violation of the law.

But, it turns out, the law doesn’t have any sort of punishment or penalty, so the city kept flying the flags, to which Idaho Attorney General Raúl Labrador sent the city a strongly worded letter telling them to take it down — or else.

To get around the law, Boise City Council members Tuesday night voted to make the Pride flag an “official” flag of the city.

Bonners Ferry’s flag

Meanwhile, way up in the North Idaho city of Bonners Ferry, which is just 30 miles from the Canadian border, City Council members there were scheduled to take action Tuesday night on what to do with the display of the Canadian flag, another casualty of the Republicans’ war on flags.

“Traditionally, the City of Bonners Ferry has displayed three flags in the grassy area to the north of the museum adjoining Highway 95, the American flag, the State of Idaho flag, and the Canadian flag,” according to a memo from the city attorney, Andrakay Pluid. “With the enactment of (the new law), the City was contacted by the Idaho Attorney General’s Office and instructed that the Canadian flag needed to be removed immediately under threat of suit, specifically a writ of mandamus.”

Idaho’s attorney general certainly is busy fighting serious crime in Idaho.

But Bonners Ferry’s attorney offered a possible solution: Declare every day of the year a “special occasion” that recognizes “our relationship or friendship with our Canadian neighbors. This would empower the City to fly the Canadian flag if it chose to while not running afoul of the plain language of the statute.”

We realize these end-runs around the state Legislature are rather childish and silly, but that says more about the law that was passed than about the cities’ attempts to exercise their freedoms.

It raises the question: Don’t Republican legislators have anything else to worry about?

The issue of what flags a city flies at city hall or on a grassy area is of such little consequence, one has to wonder why Republican legislators felt a need to pass a statewide ban on all flags other than the ones approved by the state?

Perhaps bill sponsor Rep. Heather Scott, R-Blanchard, who opposes same-sex marriage, was strolling from the Capitol to lunch one day and was triggered when she saw the Pride flag outside Boise City Hall, and wanted to do something about it.

Isn’t it odd that the party speaking the words “freedom” and “liberty” every chance it gets, also passes so many bills telling everyone what they are not allowed to do?

We are reminded of the Soviet Union’s ban of the Solidarity flag in Poland in a desperate attempt to hold on to power in the 1980s.

In its almost maniacal pursuit of policing behavior it doesn’t agree with, the Legislature has painted the state into a corner, putting it in the unenviable position of being the flag police.

Gov. Little should have seen this one coming and put a veto stamp on this terrible bill.

The best thing legislators can do now is repeal it as soon as they get back into session in January.

In the meantime, let freedom fly.

This story was originally published May 7, 2025 at 8:05 AM.