Court Opinion

ID: 9544599
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 16:57:34.851743+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:13:16.409186
License: Public Domain

BISTLINE, Justice, specially
concurring.
To me it would be most appropriate for the Court to emphasize that the district judge is reversed not because he was wrong, but because the Court has been wrong. The only district court fault, but not error, was in following the law as the Idaho Supreme Court declared the law to be.
Six months ago I pointed out in State v. Fowler, 101 Idaho 546, 617 P.2d 850 (1980), that Judge Prather in that case brought our attention to the problems created by Miles and Post. I specifically quoted his statement that “even though Miles may be too recent to be overruled, it is important to realize that the Miles decision totally fails to address the case of Chambers v. Maroney.” There I noted that the question was squarely before the Court, but the Court declined to even mention Miles or Post, let alone discuss Chambers. In what was to be only a solo effort I discussed Chambers, Miles and Post, distinguishing Miles and Post on their facts from Fowler and concluding that the facts in Fowler were more similar to those in Chambers than those in Miles or Post. In coming to grips with this case, while Fowler was perhaps distinguishable from Miles and Post, this case cannot be distinguished from Chambers. I am certain that the judges of the First District will welcome, as I do, that we now have for the first time an opinion of the Court discussing Chambers and its relationship to Miles and Post. Assuming that a disapproval of those cases is tantamount to their being overruled, I concur.