Idaho Supreme Court Justices Robyn Brody, left, and Chief Justice G. Richard Bevan, right, listen to oral arguments in court from attorneys on a lawsuit by Babe Vote and the League of Women Voters targeting an Idaho law that removed student identification cards as acceptable voter registration documents. (Kyle Pfannenstiel/Idaho Capital Sun)
Alleging Idaho’s long-critiqued public defense system has worsened despite the state’s reform effort, the ACLU of Idaho asked the Idaho Supreme Court to intervene.
Following the ACLU of Idaho’s 2015 lawsuit that alleged Idaho’s public defense system violated low-income people’s right to counsel guaranteed under the Sixth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, Idaho passed a law to centralize county-level public defenders into a statewide agency, called the Office of the State Public Defender.
In October, Idaho officially transferred public defense from Idaho’s 44 counties to that agency.
Concerns raised about Idaho’s new public defense system after exodus in public defenders