The Idaho State Capitol building in Boise on Jan. 23, 2024. (Otto Kitsinger for Idaho Capital Sun)
Idaho’s landmark Terrorist Control Act will be rendered useless if the Idaho House of Representatives passes a bill approved by the state Senate on Jan. 25. Among other things, the act made it a serious felony for those who commit criminal acts that are “dangerous to human life” and intended to “intimidate or coerce” either the public or governmental policymakers. Senate Bill 1220 would decriminalize any such criminal acts that were not done in cooperation with a “foreign terrorist organization.” Violent acts of intimidation, like the bombings by the Aryan Nations hate group in northern Idaho in 1986, could no longer be prosecuted under the Terrorist Control Act if no foreigners were involved.
Aryan Nations members exploded a pipe bomb at Father Bill Wassmuth’s home in Coeur d’Alene on Sept. 15, 1986, and set off three other bombs a few days later. Father Bill was shaken, but not physically injured, and there were no injuries sustained in the other blasts. The bombs were designed to intimidate and silence those like Father Bill who were exercising their constitutional right to speak out against the dangerous white supremacist group. Idaho law was not adequate at that time to deter and sufficiently punish such violent activity.