At the request of House Minority Leader Ilana Rubel, D-Boise, the Idaho Attorney General’s office has issued an opinion on the application to the state Capitol of local orders from the city of Boise and Central District Health requiring masking and social distancing during the coronavirus pandemic. The conclusion: While state law exempts the Capitol building from local city ordinances including certain public health orders, “the state of Idaho has not exempted itself from public health orders issued by public health districts. Therefore the public spaces within the Capitol Building are likely subject to these orders,” wrote Assistant Chief Deputy Attorney General Brian Kane.

The Legislature, as a separate branch of government, has authority to make its own rules within its chambers, Kane noted. However, “Although the Legislature and the Constitutional Officers have authority over the management and safety of their respective offices, chambers and meeting rooms, the public areas of the Capitol Building are likely subject to the CDH order until that order is rescinded, superseded by the Governor or Director of the Department of Health & Welfare, or exempted by the Idaho Legislature,” Kane wrote.

Central District Health has current orders for Ada County prohibiting governmental gatherings of 50 or more people; requiring six feet of physical distancing between persons not residing in the same household; and requiring that people must wear masks covering their nose and mouth when a six-foot physical distance cannot be maintained, with limited exceptions. 

“The CDH order specifically includes government offices,” Kane wrote.

Rubel said, “I feel like this whole session has been one of the biggest, if not the biggest, super-spreader event in Idaho since the pandemic hit the state. What we’re doing now is so counter-productive to our goals of getting kids back to school, getting people back to work and getting our businesses running again.”

“We absolutely have to contain the spread of this virus so we can get our lives back on track,” Rubel said, “and packing hundreds of people into small spaces with no distancing and no masks largely undermines everything we’ve been trying to accomplish for months.”  

Betsy Z. Russell is the Boise bureau chief and state capitol reporter for the Idaho Press and Adams Publishing Group. Follow her on Twitter at @BetsyZRussell.