Rancher, Attorney, and Idaho Chief Justice Alfred Budge [otd 02/24]

Judge Alfred Budge.
H. T. French photo.

Alfred Budge, Chief Justice of the Idaho Supreme Court, was born February 24, 1868 in Providence, Utah, just south of Logan.

Two years later, the family moved to Paris, Idaho, where his father William played a prominent role in the Mormon Church as well as in Idaho politics. William served two terms in the Territorial legislature and, in 1899, was elected to the state Senate.

Alfred attended preparative academies in Logan and Provo, Utah, before serving an LDS mission in Germany and Switzerland. (In preparation, he made himself fluent in German.) Upon his return, he entered the University of Michigan Law School. He earned an LL.B. degree in 1892, and returned to Idaho, where he was admitted to the bar. Just two years later, voters elected Albert to be District Attorney in Bear Lake County. At the end of that term, he was elected county Prosecuting Attorney. About that time, he also served on the Paris city council.

According to the Illustrated History, about two-thirds of the registered voters in Bear Lake County belonged to the Democratic Party at that time. The writers made particular note of the fact that Alfred, like his father, belonged to the Republican Party … yet both received substantial majorities when they ran for local offices.

Until events led him to focus on state-wide concerns, Budge took an active role in business matters in southeast Idaho and northern Utah. Besides a ranch property, he owned shares in a flouring mill, and helped promote and build a hydropower plant to furnish electricity to area communities. He also had interests in the Bear Lake State Bank, serving as Director and Vice President, and in another bank in Cache County, Utah.

Alfred continued in county-level legal offices until 1902, when – in a hard-fought election – he became Judge of Idaho's Fifth Judicial District. Re-elected for a second term, he moved his family to Pocatello in 1911-1913. He held that position until 1914, when the Governor appointed him to the Idaho Supreme Court.

Idaho Capitol Building, ca 1915. J. H. Hawley photo.

At the next election, Budge ran successfully for the Court position and continued to do so – "most of the time without opposition" – for the next thirty years. In 1919, the Judge purchased a home in Boise and moved his family there (Idaho Statesman, March 16, 1919). He lived in Boise the rest of his life.

He acted as Chief Justice for a considerable portion of his time on the Supreme bench. With that long tenure, Budge participated in, and often led, the legal analyses that virtually defined the state's jurisprudence.

In 1929, the Judge was appointed (The Oregonian, November 25, 1929) as the President of the first Idaho Judicial Council, a body created to review and improve judicial procedures and practices in the state. (The Council concept lapsed shortly thereafter in Idaho, and was not revived until 1967.)
His expertise was recognized outside the court: The University of Michigan awarded him an honorary Master of Arts degree, and the University of Idaho awarded him an honorary Doctor of Law degree. He spent a summer as Visiting Professor at the Northwestern University Law School, and regularly served as a Special Lecturer at the University of Idaho College of Law.

Budge was half way through his sixth elected term on the Supreme Court when he died in January 1951.
                                                                                
References: [B&W], [Defen], [French], [Hawley], [Illust-State]