ACLU of Idaho begins to track public defense issues in response to an increase in intake complaints.

National Legal Aid and Defender Association releases a report finding unconstitutional public defense systems in all of the Idaho counties studied. Idaho’s governor-appointed Criminal Justice Commission creates a subcommittee on public defense.

Idaho Criminal Justice Commission’s Public Defense Subcommittee recommends creating an interim committee of the Idaho Legislature to focus on public defense reform.

Idaho legislature bans flat-fee public defense contracts.

Legislature creates a statewide Public Defense Commission with very limited powers.

ACLU, ACLU of Idaho, and Hogan Lovells US LLP file a class action lawsuit in state court against the Governor and Public Defense Commission members over the statewide public defense system.

State trial court dismisses our lawsuit on standing, ripeness, and separation of powers grounds. We immediately appeal to the Idaho Supreme Court.

These public defense reform bills:

• Allocate $5 million in new funding for public defense, to be distributed in grants by the Public Defense Commission—the first time in Idaho’s history that state funding is appropriated for trial-level public defense.
• Require the statewide Public Defense Commission to promulgate public defense standards.
• Give the Public Defense Commission enforcement authority to hold counties accountable to new public defense standards.

Public Defense Commission creates new rules that fail to include workload or caseload standards and use permissive rather than mandatory language.

Idaho Supreme Court rules that ACLU/Hogan Lovells lawsuit should go forward, holding that “the counties have no practical ability to effect statewide change” and so “the State must implement the remedy.”

Both sides in the lawsuit argue before the state District Court over whether the case should be certified as a class action.

The State of Idaho assumed responsibility for delivering all public defense services on October 1, 2024, consolidating all public defense in the state under the Office of the State Public Defender (SPD). Previously, public defense was managed at the county level.

The persistent, uneven, and statewide issues with Idaho’s public defense system prompted our team to file an emergency motion in December of 2024 in the Idaho Supreme Court. The filing details significant flaws in the state’s public defense system.