Idaho Legislature – VOTE NO on H0546 - Restroom access act (Posted: 02/02/26)

• Link: legislature.idaho.gov/s…

• See bill link above for current status and committee assignment

• See Idaho Insider for links where you can send group emails based on current status and committee assignment: gemstatechronicle.com/l…

Summary (ai assisted)

H0546 requires retail and service establishments in Idaho with employee-only restrooms to allow access by individuals with eligible medical conditions or ostomy devices (when specified conditions are met). The bill defines key terms, limits civil liability under certain circumstances, and classifies violations as misdemeanors punishable by fines up to $50.

Definitions

• Customer: An individual who is lawfully on the premises of a retail establishment.

• Eligible medical condition: Crohn's disease, ulcerative colitis, any other inflammatory bowel disease, irritable bowel syndrome, or any other medical condition that requires immediate access to a restroom facility.

• Retail establishment: Place of business open to general public for sale of goods or services. Excludes a filling station or service station with a structure of eight hundred (800) square feet or less that has an employee restroom facility within.

Customer Access to Restroom Facilities Retail establishment with an employee-only restroom shall allow customer use during normal business hours if all these conditions are met:

• Customer suffers from an eligible medical condition or uses an ostomy device. Existence of the condition or device must be documented in writing by customer's physician or nonprofit organization serving individuals who suffer from the condition.

• Customer shall present to an employee proof of an eligible medical condition.

• Three (3) or more employees must be working when customer asks to use employee restroom facility.

• Retail establishment does not normally allow restroom access to the public.

• Employee restroom is reasonably safe and not in an area where access would create obvious health or safety risk to customer or an obvious security risk to the establishment.

• Public restroom is not immediately accessible to the customer.

Limitation of Liability Retail establishment and its employees not civilly liable for allowing a customer who claims to have an eligible medical condition to use a non-public employee restroom facility if act or omission:

• Is not negligent;

• Occurs in a non-public area of the retail establishment; and

• Results in injury to or death of customer or non-employee accompanying the customer.

Retail establishment not required to make any physical changes to an employee restroom facility.

Violations: Violating retail establishment or employee commits a misdemeanor and shall be subject to a fine up to fifty dollars ($50.00).

Fiscal Impact: No fiscal impact.

Reason for Recommendation to VOTE NO

This bill takes the nanny state and infringement on private business / employee / medical privacy rights to a whole new – and completely unacceptable – level.

We truly understand the need of people with the covered conditions to access restrooms urgently. The legislature’s desire to help people in need of a restroom is laudable. However, this bill presents unacceptable infringements of business owners and employee rights as well as privacy rights of individuals with medical conditions:

• Maintaining restrooms requires extra time and expense. Examples abound where businesses had to close public restrooms, add security, or require key or other controlled access due to drug use, vandalism, and general messiness of customers using them. While this is less likely with employee-only restroom requests, it still applies. Representative links:

  • Reddit discussion: tinyurl.com/4c2x3wm6

  • Opioid use: blog.lowersrisk.com/opi…

  • Opioid use: pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/ar…

• Providing restroom access falls outside a business’ main purpose as a retail or service establishment.

• Businesses should not be required to offer public restrooms, nor should they be required to provide customer access to employee-only restrooms. Expecting them to do so vastly oversteps the proper role of government.

• Customers who need to use the employee-only restroom should not have to share personal medical information that’s, frankly, no one else’s business.

Solution is simple: Someone in desperate need of a restroom can kindly and respectfully explain their need and ask to use the employee restroom. Most business owners and employees will be compassionate and say “Yes, of course!” – especially if customer is there lawfully to do business with the establishment. The few businesses and employees who deny such a request could suffer bad publicity and loss of business, punishment enough.

Please VOTE NO.

Related

• Idaho Legislature 2026 Bills to Support or Oppose: tinyurl.com/yc2jpkeh