Natural resources expert seeks court seat

COEUR d’ALENE — Clive Strong, who has served as a deputy attorney general for nearly 33 years, has thrown his hat into the ring for a vacant seat on Idaho’s Supreme Court.

Strong is a third-generation Idahoan who has lived and worked all across Idaho.

He was born and raised in Wendell, Idaho, on the Eastern Snake Plains Aquifer, which he would later help adjudicate for a major part of his career.

“I grew up right in the epicenter of the problem, and I didn’t even know it was a problem at that age,” he said.

Strong said his father was farm mechanic and his mother was a homemaker.

“We didn’t have a lot of money, so I worked a lot,” he said, adding he eventually wound up working for Idaho State Sen. Vern Ravenscroft, who was into forestry at the time.

“I knew at a very early age, by the time I was in fourth grade, that I wanted to become a forester,” Strong said, and that is precisely what he did.

His interest in forestry led him to the University of Idaho where he earned a degree in Forest Business Management. That is where he met his wife, Martha, on a blind date.

They have been

married for 41 years. To pay for college, Clive worked for the Forest Service doing timber stand surveys and fighting fires.

“I got to see a little bit of the debate about clear cutting and whether that was an appropriate tool for forest management,” he said. “So I decided at that time that I really liked this intersection between law and science, and I decided that I was going to do forestry and law.”

That is exactly what he did.

Strong earned his law degree from the University of Idaho in 1978 and a Masters in Law from the University of Michigan in 1983 with an emphasis in natural resource law.

Strong said his three sons call him unusual because they went off to college having no idea what they were going to do, but he knew exactly what he wanted to do.

Strong said trying to balance the certainty of law, and possibilities of science has been challenging but fascinating as well.

“You have this tension between law and science and making sure in the legal arena that we don’t overuse science from my perspective,” he said. “From a legal perspective you have to make sure you are using science appropriately.”

His background in agriculture, forestry and water rights set him up for a career of protecting Idaho’s sovereign interests over its natural resources as a deputy attorney general. He joined the Idaho Attorney General’s Office in 1983.

One year later, Clive was promoted to chief of the Natural Resources Division, a position he still holds today. During his career, Strong has argued two cases before the United States Supreme Court and numerous cases before the Idaho Supreme Court.

Strong successfully argued before the United States Supreme Court that Idaho could not be sued in federal court and the United States must defend its water right claims in state court. Strong assisted in the passage of the Federal Facilities Compliance Act, which allows states to sue the United States when the federal government violates environmental laws.

Throughout his career, Strong has earned his notoriety as an expert in natural resource and water issues and was recently recognized as the 2014 Environment, Energy, and Resources Government Attorney of the Year by the American Bar Association.

On his third day on the job in the Attorney General’s Office, Clive was assigned to work on the Swan Falls water rights case, which led to the historic 1984 Swan Falls Agreement a year later. This agreement in large measure laid the foundation for Strong’s 33-year career defending Idaho’s natural resources.

Strong was also the state’s lead attorney in the historic Snake River Basin Adjudication from its inception in 1987 to its completion in 2014. The adjudication decreed more than 158,000 water rights. Other states view Idaho’s adjudication as a model. Additionally, he has represented Idaho in litigation over Snake River salmon and steelhead, and management of state endowment lands.

Strong’s judicial philosophy is simple.

“I believe the role of a judge is a limited one — it is to uphold the Constitution and statutes as written. A judge should not allow personal or political preferences to influence his decision. In interpreting the Constitution and statutes, a judge should not rewrite a statute or revise the constitution, but rather give effect to the provision as written.”

Strong is running against three other candidates in the non-partisan race to replace Justice Jim Jones. Those candidates include Robyn Brody, Sergio A. Gutierrez and Curt McKenzie.