Lawrence Wasden

In 2019, Attorneys General from all 50 U.S. states, the District of Columbia, and all four U.S. territories were offered the opportunity to support a bill, the Secure and Fair Enforcement (SAFE) Banking Act (H.R. 1595), sponsored by U.S. Rep. Ed Perlmutter (D-Colo.), which would permit marijuana-related businesses in states and territories to use the banking system. The bill would facilitate collection of taxes levied on the $8.3 billion industry, reduce the danger of operating cash-only businesses and more effectively monitor the industry. Only Wasden and 16 other A.G.s did not support the measure.

In July 2017, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton led a group of Republican Attorneys General from nine other states, including Wasden, plus Idaho Governor Butch Otter, in threatening the Donald Trump administration that they would litigate if the president did not terminate the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals policy that had been implemented by President Barack Obama. Tennessee Attorney General Herbert Slatery subsequently reversed his position and withdrew his participation from the proposed suit. Slatery went further to urge passage of the DREAM Act. The other Attorneys General who joined in making the threats against Trump included Steve Marshall of Alabama, Leslie Rutledge of Arkansas, Derek Schmidt of Kansas, Jeff Landry of Louisiana, Doug Peterson of Nebraska, Alan Wilson of South Carolina, and Patrick Morrisey of West Virginia.

Wasden earned a B.A. from Brigham Young University in 1982, and a J.D. from the University of Idaho College of Law in 1985.

Lawrence Garth Wasden (born November 3, 1957) is the current Attorney General of the state of Idaho serving since 2003, and is the longest serving Attorney General in Idaho history.