City Club of Boise 4th Annual Marilyn Shuler Human Rights Forum

More than 20 years ago, Idaho celebrated a major victory for human rights when a lawsuit finally bankrupted Aryan Nations leader Richard Butler and he lost the compound he began when he first moved to the state some 27 years earlier.

It was a hopeful time, with the construction of the world's only memorial to Anne Frank and human rights and the foundation of the Wassmuth Center for Human Rights, inspired by the former priest who helped lead the fight against the North Idaho white supremacists. When Bill Wassmuth died, then-Gov. Dirk Kempthorne, a Republican, praised Wassmuth's bravery and said that "because of his efforts, Idaho today is no longer home to groups that espouse hatred and violence."

In the two decades that have followed, however, it has become clear that victory was for just one battle. The war is far from over.

At the City Club of Boise's Fourth…