T. Stanley Nelson v. Charles J. Marshall

The pertinent facts giving rise to this appeal are not in dispute. On March 17, 1970, T. Stanley Nelson (plaintiff-appellant)
filed a petition for a writ of prohibition to prevent the Idaho Water Resource Board from loaning money to Arves L. Christensen
for the development of irrigation wells to be used in applying water to arid lands located near Payette, Idaho. The appellant
is a taxpayer and has property rights adjoining the land under development by Mr. Christensen; his standing to sue was conceded
by the respondents. The petition filed by the appellant in district court alleges that the Board does not have jurisdiction
to make the challenged loan, for two alternative reasons: (1) the statutory provisions under which the Board is operating
are unconstitutional; and (2) in approving the loan, the Board did not comply with those statutory provisions. On April 20, 1970, a hearing on the appellant's petition was held in the Ada County district court which ruled that the equal
protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution is violated by the "special cases" language
contained in I.C. §§ 42-1754(b)[Footnote 1] and 42-1756(a). The court went on, however, to hold that the
objectionable words are severable and that without them the Board may loan funds to an individual without determining that
he is a special case; the court also rejected the other contentions of the appellant and denied the requested writ of prohibition.