With the federal government’s dumping of the Canadian Gray Wolf into the national forest contained within the boundaries of the State of Idaho, it has overstepped its Constitutional authority and has consequently deprived the citizens of Idaho of their 1) right to due process of law, 2) the right to equal protection under the law which is guaranteed by the 14^th Amendment to the Constitution, and 3) deprives Idaho’s legislators from carrying out their constitutionally required duties to protect the rights of Idaho’s citizens to state jurisdiction and regulatory authority.

The 14^th Amendment gave us all duel citizenship. We are national citizens and we are citizens of the state in which we reside and we are entitled to judicial review under both. The Constitution recognized sovereignty in the federal government, the various state governments, and in the individual citizen, with all powers of government flowing from the people, not the government. An individual state cannot cede its sovereignty to the federal government, which Idaho has done in the wolf introduction issue. If the federal government infringes on a state’s sovereignty, then the citizens of that state have lost their ability to make that state government accountable to them. The deprivation of state processes is a deprivation of state citizenship, and all persons are entitled to separate state and federal processes as a part of the privileges and immunities, equal protection and due process of law as guaranteed by the 14^th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States.

We, who live in Idaho, live in fear of the excessive fines and the immediate retribution from the federal government if we kill a wolf to protect our lives and our property. We are intimidated and threatened by the federal government, and they pit neighbor against neighbor by offering rewards for information leading to a conviction when a wolf has been killed. These acts of the government are a denial of our basic and fundamental constitutional rights, and have been upheld in federal courts! But in truth, "it deprives persons of state processes on the federal lands of the United States without recourse in any judicial forum. If a wolf is killed, which is a documented man killer, are we prosecuted by state and local authorities, tried by a local jury, a jury of our peers? No, we are denied that right! Enforcement of specific federal rights, rights afforded to the federal government’s wolves, actually deprives the constitutional rights of all persons on public lands, which negatively impacts the citizens of the State of Idaho.

Idaho has large tracts of federal public domain land which remains in territorial status, and includes all federal public domain land and lands which were reserved by Executive Action, such as National Forests and National Monuments. When the federal government exercises territorial authority on federal lands with a sovereign state, it is acting as both the federal and state government, and is as capable of discriminating against the rights of individuals just as is a state government exercising its normal functions. In the issue with the wolves, Idaho’s authority over its citizens has been denied, which in turn denies its citizens of due process

 and equal protection under the laws. This denial of our Constitutional rights then elevates the wolf issue to that of a denial of our civil rights.

In 1992, the United States Supreme Court applied the principle of federalism for the first time, to require that laws passed by Congress are unconstitutional if Congress renders itself  or the states politically

 unaccountable to their constituents, by compelling or coercing a state to perform a federally mandated requirement, such as "wolf recovery in Idaho" as enforced by the Endangered Species Act and regulated by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service with rules published in the Federal Register. Congressman Mike Simpson, Idaho, stated clearly at a public meeting in Challis earlier this year, that legislatively there was nothing he could do for Idaho concerning the wolf recovery issue, and Idaho’s legislators’ hands seem to be tied regarding this issue. Through the manipulation of the federal government’s wolf recovery program, it is obvious that the citizens of Idaho are being denied their right to constitutional accountability, not only at the state level, but at the federal level as well. Our United States Congressmen and our Idaho Legislators have lost their ability to be accountable to the people of Idaho, which in turn denies the people of Idaho their constitutional rights.

This issue of the loss of constitutional accountability by our United States Congressmen, by our State Legislators, and the denial of Idaho’s citizen’s civil rights, is the issue we wish to bring to the attention of the Office of the Governor. The Central Idaho Wolf Coalition is strongly urging you, Governor Kempthorne, to address the issue of the dumping of the Canadian Gray Wolf into Idaho and its serious unconstitutional implications. We are urgently requesting you as the Chief Executive Constitutional Officer of the State of Idaho, who has taken an oath to uphold and protect the Constitution, to take the leadership in this fight to defend the constitutional rights of the citizens of the Sovereign State of Idaho.

Sincerely,

Marilyn Brower
Central Idaho Wolf Coalition
Steering Committee

Mailing address: Central Idaho Wolf Coalition, Inc. 
 P.O. Box 89 
 Stanley, Idaho 83278

Office: #1 Bennet Street 
 Stanley, Idaho 83278

Office Hours: Monday through Friday 12:00 to 6:00 PM

1-877-669-6537 or (208) 774-2980