BOISE, ID – Usually, the Idaho Attorney General’s Office legally represents state government agencies.

But in 2024, the Idaho Legislature and Gov. Brad Little approved a law to carve out the Idaho Department of Lands as an exception, directing the agency to have its own attorney that is independent of the Attorney General’s Office.

Then this June, the Idaho State Board of Land Commissioners voted to extend that exception to itself. The Land Board manages the state’s public lands, including deciding whether to sell land.

Now, attorneys for the Land Board and Idaho Attorney General Raúl Labrador are squabbling about that policy in court — in an unrelated federal lawsuit about access to land in the Boise foothills, which neither agency is a party to.

“The statutes setting forth who may represent state officers and entities in Idaho are not complex,” Labrador’s attorneys wrote. Quoting a state law about the attorney general’s duties, they wrote “The Attorney General has the authority and obligation to ‘represent the state and all departments … [and] boards’ in ‘all courts.’”

In response, attorneys for the Land Board and the Department of Lands argued Labrador lacked authority to even get involved in the federal lawsuit — and that the Legislature was clear about its intention.

“The Legislature expressly repealed the AG’s authority to represent the State’s interest in state land and timber matters,” they wrote.

How did legal representation for the Land Board change?

The Land Board provides direction for the Idaho Department of Land’s management of about 2.5 million acres of state endowment lands.

Idaho Land Board votes to hire outside legal counsel instead of AG Raúl Labrador

Under the state’s constitution, the attorney general serves on the Land Board, along with several other state constitutional officers, including the governor.

But until the Land Board’s new policy went into effect, Idaho’s attorney general also served as the Land Board’s legal counsel.

This year’s decision for the Idaho Land Board to have its own attorneys is part of a years-long dispute over concerns that the attorney general had too much power in the governing body, even before Labrador took office in 2023.

In 2016, Idaho lawmakers considered amending the state’s constitution to remove the attorney general from the Land Board, the Spokesman-Review reported. That came years after the former attorney general, Lawrence Wasden, successfully sued the Land Board in 2010, the newspaper reported.

Labrador was the only member of the Land Board to vote against approving the new legal representation policy, which states that the “land board shall be represented by its legal counsel in all courts.”

At the time, Labrador claimed the policy was contrary to state law and the state’s constitution.

That dispute has boiled over into court.

In court, Labrador’s attorneys claim new policy violates state law. Land Board’s attorneys argue the Legislature ‘repealed the AG’s authority.’

Labrador’s attorneys’ legal filing on Aug. 22 asked a federal judge to strike the Land Board’s request to file an amicus brief, which is when someone outside of a case wants to weigh in — because it was filed by the Department of Land’s in-house attorneys.

“The attorneys who submitted the motion for leave to file the amicus brief have no authority to represent the State or the Land Board in court, and the Attorney General — who does have that authority — did not authorize the motion,” Labrador’s attorneys wrote.

Labrador’s attorneys say that the Legislature “did not authorize the Department of Lands’ counsel to represent the State of Idaho,” and argued that the Land Board’s recent policy “violates the plain text of Idaho law — as the Attorney General advised the Board before it was adopted.”

In a legal filing last week, attorneys for the Land Board asked the judge to deny the Attorney General’s Office’s request, arguing that Labrador lacked authority and that the Idaho Supreme Court would be a better jurisdiction to consider the issue.

“The allegation that the AG has supreme constitutional authority to represent the Land Board and ‘State of Idaho’ in state land matters is contrary to the Constitution, statute, caselaw, and the Idaho Rules of Professional Conduct,’” the Land Board’s attorneys wrote.

The Idaho Attorney General’s Office could not be immediately reached for comment.

Idaho Capital Sun is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Idaho Capital Sun maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Christina Lords for questions: info@idahocapitalsun.com.