The most comprehensive story of the 2025 legislative session is the politics resulting from a slate of freshly elected lawmakers, and the reaction to these politics by longer-tenured legislators. Fresh off a 2024 election cycle, freshmen legislators replaced more moderate Republicans, creating a shift toward not only a more conservative statehouse, but one that is more obviously (and openly) based in Christian nationalism. This extreme shift poses an unequivocal threat to our most basic and indispensable rights and freedoms.
Thankfully, our team was well-positioned to address these threats. We spent months charting national legislative trends, planning for the possibility of a federal administration hostile to civil rights, and honing our legislative priorities and strategy.
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Friday, June 6, 2025 - 9:00am
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Our Work in the Statehouse By Issue Area
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LGBTQ+ Rights and Trans Justice
Idaho’s lawmakers have targeted the LGBTQ+ community — particularly transgender people —for many years, and this year was no different. This year alone, lawmakers introduced at least 19 bills targeting trans people—seeking to control everything from their bodily autonomy to where they can use the bathroom.
This surge of anti-trans legislation reflects a broader, concerning increase in censorship laws. When lawmakers are allowed to censor specific groups of people, it sets a dangerous precedent that threatens the fundamental rights of all.
Much of this is done under the guise of moral and religious superiority, with legislators often citing Bible verses instead of legal arguments. When policy decisions are made through such a narrow theological lens, it reflects a staggering drift away from democracy and towards authoritarianism.
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Immigrant Rights
In just this legislative session, 14 bills targeting immigrants were introduced in the Idaho Legislature alongside an executive order from Governor Little praising the current administration's efforts to terrorize immigrants under the guise of protecting our border. Idaho is at the forefront of a nationally coordinated, well-funded movement to drive away and criminalize immigrants.
This isn’t just about policy anymore—it’s about an intentional and cruel attack on immigrant communities in Idaho. Lawmakers are targeting immigrants with the kind of vitriol we used to see on the fringes, but now it's becoming normalized in the legislative process. The language and tone we’re hearing from some lawmakers now goes beyond policy disagreement—it’s flat-out dehumanizing. That’s why we’re fighting back.
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Reproductive Rights
In 2025, lawmakers continued to introduce laws that roll back reproductive rights and further threaten the health and safety of Idahoans. The most extreme bills would have established new and unusual legal and policy frameworks—like assigning personhood rights to fetuses—that assert moral and religious ideals in place of science and research-backed medicine.
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Criminal Justice
Idaho incarcerates more people per capita than most states, and more women than any other democracy in the world. Despite these alarming statistics, this year Idaho lawmakers passed a half dozen laws that will further burden our courts, prisons, and jails.
Throughout session, we continued advocating against punitive “solutions” to societal issues and the ongoing expansion of the carceral state, recognizing that criminal justice is a confluence of racial, economic, and social justice.
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Religious Freedom
Idaho lawmakers again introduced a suite of bills aimed at inserting “traditional,” Christian values and ideals into Idaho schools and healthcare. These bills reflect a broader Christian nationalist political agenda being seen across the U.S.—a trend with firm roots in conservative states like Idaho. Proponents of Christian nationalist legislation describe such laws as a necessary response to the rise of “secular and progressive” policy, law, and culture, which ultimately “threaten” society.
We recognize Christian nationalist legislation as part of a broad scheme aimed at shoring up political power, rather than an earnest attempt to return to “traditional values.” In fact, every attempt to embed Christian ideals in Idaho law showed a blatant disregard for constitutional protections against religious coercion, the separation of church and state, and marked an extreme departure from legal and political precedent—and tradition.
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Censorship
Censorship laws are on the rise in Idaho and across the U.S. Idaho lawmakers are continuing a sustained assault on political, civic, and legal efforts to promote racial, social, and environmental justice—an attack evidenced by a litany of bills aimed to stifle dissent, speech, protest, academic freedom, and more. The trend comes at a moment when the federal government, in its relentless pursuit of a retaliatory political and legal agenda, has grown overtly hostile towards dissent and more confident in deploying extraordinary and illegal means to reach its goals.
This year’s batch of censorship bills span a range of issue areas. In some cases, speech restrictions target the LGBTQ+ community and trans folks; elsewhere, new laws restrict academic freedom in public schools. Throughout the 2025 legislative session, attacks on racial justice through bans on diversity, equity, and inclusion policy and practices were common, as were bills that dangerously restrict protest, in some cases altogether outlawing the possibility of peaceful assembly.
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The 2024 Idaho legislative session was fraught: Lawmakers battled over policy, politics, and party allegiance, often in full public view. The increased tension shaped our legislative advocacy efforts, as did a marked departure from democratic processes and norms in the legislature. Our team at the ACLU of Idaho was nimble as this unusual legislative session unfolded — we found new routes to protect civil rights and civil liberties, and even recalibrated how we define our victories.
In practice, redefining a “win” meant we worked diligently to counteract political apathy, amplify community voices, and correct false and harmful political rhetoric aimed at eroding civil rights and civil liberties. What didn’t change this year is our fierce dedication to protecting the rights and freedoms of all Idahoans.
Read the interactive digital version of the Legislative Report on Isuuu or view and print the PDF below.
The 2024 Idaho legislative session was fraught: Lawmakers battled over policy, politics, and party allegiance, often in full public view. The increased tension shaped our legislative advocacy efforts, as did a marked departure from democratic processes and norms in the legislature. Our team at the ACLU of Idaho was nimble as this unusual legislative session unfolded — we found new routes to protect civil rights and civil liberties, and even recalibrated how we define our victories.
In practice, redefining a “win” meant we worked diligently to counteract political apathy, amplify community voices, and correct false and harmful political rhetoric aimed at eroding civil rights and civil liberties. What didn’t change this year is our fierce dedication to protecting the rights and freedoms of all Idahoans.
Continue reading the 2024 Legislative Report and Scorecard
What is the Legislative Scorecard?
The ACLU of Idaho legislative scorecard documents the voting patterns of state senators and representatives during the 2024 Idaho Legislative Session. The following scorecard features just a handful of bills we tracked during the 2024 legislative session, using our own bill tracker powered by FastDemocracy. This bill tracker is an invaluable tool for political education; it enables all Idahoans to chart and follow legislation that impacts civil rights and liberties
Why is the scorecard created?
The Legislative Scorecard is a crucial accountability tool. We encourage you to use this scorecard to give your elected officials feedback on their votes during the 2024 Legislative Session. Direct communication with your elected officials is a valuable way to encourage them to protect our constitutional rights around the issues that are most important to you.
Date
Wednesday, July 31, 2024 - 9:00am
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The ACLU of Idaho is proud to share our 2023 Legislative Report & Scorecard.
READ THE INTERACTIVE DIGITAL VERSION ON ISSUU -- or view and download the PDF below.
No sugar coating: 2023 was brutal for civil rights in Idaho. The legislature succeeded with hard pushes to diminish Idahoans’ rights with a remarkable session:
- We had nearly 40 new legislators and saw a shift in legislative committee leadership and membership, in both the House and Senate.
- We saw around 100 bills attack Idahoans rights and freedoms around voting, healthcare, freedom of expression, and reproductive rights.
- Idaho became only the second state, after Arkansas, to pass a total ban on gender affirming healthcare for youth.
Despite these attacks, the ACLU of Idaho remained firm in our commitment to defending the constitutional rights and freedoms of all Idahoans. With the support of many community members, we pushed back:
- We defeated a bill that targeted drag performers.
- We won the veto of a senseless library censorship bill.
- Despite real losses in Idahoans’ voting rights, we preserved the right to cast an absentee ballot, use affidavits at the polls, and the right of Idahoans to create people-led policy ballot initiatives.
In the 2023 Legislative Scorecard & Report you'll find in-depth discussions on key ACLU legislative issue areas, and summaries of the highlights (and lowlights) from session.
We hope you also learn about our legislative process, see how your elected officials voted on crucial ACLU policy areas, and feel energized to jump into work.
What is the Legislative Scorecard?
The ACLU of Idaho legislative scorecard documents the voting patterns of state senators and representatives during the 2023 Idaho Legislative Session. At a glance, you’ll see how your legislators voted on issues like reproductive freedom, free speech, LGBTQ+ equality, reproductive freedom, and criminal legal reform. The votes presented in the Legislative Scorecard are those considered by either the full House or the full Senate. Some bills received votes from the full House but did not get out of committee to be voted on by the full Senate. This is why there are fewer bills listed on the Senate Scorecard.
Why is the scorecard created?
The Legislative Scorecard is a crucial accountability tool. We encourage you to use this scorecard to give your elected officials feedback on their votes during the 2023 Legislative Session. Direct communication with your elected officials is a valuable way to encourage them to protect our constitutional rights around the issues that are most important to you.
Date
Thursday, September 28, 2023 - 1:45pm
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