Idaho Senate passes bill to define ‘domestic terrorism’ as activity associated with foreign groups

The Idaho Senate voted 27-8 on Thursday to advance a bill that would define “domestic terrorism” in Idaho as activities done in cooperation with foreign groups.

According to Senate Bill 1220’s statement of purpose, the bill would define domestic terrorism, redefine terrorism and make sure that someone can’t be called a domestic terrorist or terrorist in Idaho without going through the proper legal process.

The bill sponsor, Senate Majority Leader Kelly Anthon, R-Burley, said the purpose of the legislation is to protect free speech.

“You have the right to say things that people don’t like,” Anthon said during the Senate debate. “(People) have a right to assemble and protest the government for their grievances, even when you don’t like the group. There’s a lot of these groups I don’t like, but they have a constitutional right to do it.”

Anthon said the bill was inspired by the government casting suspicion on parents who protested policies at school board meetings during the COVID-19 pandemic. Anthon used Moms of Liberty, which the Southern Poverty Law Center defines as a far-right anti-government organization, as an example of a group who would be protected under the legislation.

The bill would amend the “Idaho Terrorist Control Act,” a law that was set in place in 1987 – just months after Aryan Nations members in North Idaho bombed the home of the Rev. Bill Wassmuth, a Catholic priest who spearheaded counter protests against white supremacists.

The bill would create a definition of “domestic terrorism,” in Idaho law, and define it as activities conducted in cooperation with a foreign terrorist organization. It would also alter Idaho’s definition of “terrorism” to include a similar requirement of cooperation with a foreign terrorist organization.

“If you are called a domestic terrorist it is going to affect your name, it’s going to affect your business, it’s going to affect your family,” Anthon said. “And it’s not fair if you’ve never had your due process and you’ve never had your day in court.”

Proponents of the bill, including Sen. Tammy Nichols, R-Middleton, and Sen. Phil Hart, R-Kellogg, said the bill is “timely” and agreed that it would protect people from being wrongly labeled without due process.

Opponents say main concern is associating ‘domestic terrorists’ with foreign entity

Two Democrats and one Republican spoke in opposition of the bill during the debate.

Senate Minority Leader Melissa Wintrow, D-Boise, and Senate Assistant Minority Leader James Ruchti, D-Pocatello, said their main concern is connecting domestic terrorism to a foreign entity.

Wintrow said that while media portrayals of parents at school board meetings have been negative, she said she has never considered them “domestic terrorists.”

Ruchti listed people who were considered domestic terrorists by the FBI, including the Unibomber Ted Kaczynski, who was convicted of creating homemade bombs that killed and injured Americans over a span of 17 years, and Timothy McVeigh, who was convicted of the Oklahoma City bombing that killed 168 people, noting that they did not have connections to foreign groups.

“Ted Kaczynski did not have a connection with a foreign government,” Ruchti said. “Timothy McVeigh did not have a connection with a foreign government. And those Aryan Nation members who bombed Rev. Bill Wassmuth did not have a connection with a foreign government, so they would not – under this bill – be a domestic terrorist.”

Sen. Daniel Foreman, R-Viola, also spoke in opposition of the bill. While he said the bill has good intent, he said the bill is unnecessary.

“We have a good body of laws in this state which deal with most of the terrible acts that criminals could or would commit,” Foreman said. “I really don’t see the need to create terms like terrorist or terrorist organization.”

The Idaho Capital Sun is the Gem State’s a nonprofit news organization delivering accountability journalism on state politics, health care, tax policy, the environment and more.