Civil rights case over Idaho grazing can advance
BY JOHN MILLER
Associated Press
Monday, September 29, 2008 10:41 AM PDT
BOISE — A Washington businessman and environmentalist who in 2006 was the high bidder on six state grazing leases can proceed with his federal civil rights lawsuit against Idaho officials including Lt. Gov. Jim Risch after they awarded the leases instead to ranchers who had offered less money in a competitive auction.
A three-judge panel of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals last week refused to dismiss a lawsuit filed by Gordon Younger, a Seattle packaging business owner and head of Lazy Y Ranch Ltd. against Risch and four other members of the Idaho Board of Land Commissioners. Their Aug. 8, 2006 decision gave the 10-year leases to the second-highest bidders.
Younger is a contributor to the Western Watersheds Project, a group seeking to end grazing on public land in the Rocky Mountains on grounds it damages the environment.
He had planned to outbid ranchers for state leases, then manage the lands to restore what he described was ‘‘their degraded streams and wildlife habitats.’’
In his lawsuit, Younger contends his constitutional right to equal protection was violated when he made the highest bid of $5,825 but lost out to ranchers who had previously held the leases, based on the Land Board’s bias against conservation groups and out-of-state businesses.
‘‘Under state management, they’ve not been doing much to protect those areas,’’ Laird Lucas, Younger’s lawyer in Boise, told The Associated Press Sunday. ‘‘Conservationists can come and bid more money, then improve state land. Everybody should win. But of course, we’ve had political bias against conservationists.’’
Lucas also said the Land Board’s decision violates provisions of the Idaho Constitution requiring they carefully preserve Idaho state endowment lands to secure the maximum long-term financial return to benefit public schools.
In addition to Risch, who was Idaho’s temporary governor at the time of the decision and is now running for U.S. Senate, other defendants include Secretary of State Ben Ysursa; former Superintendent of Public Instruction Marilyn Howard; Attorney General Lawrence Wasden; and Keith Johnson, Idaho’s former controller.
