Idaho's top federal law enforcement job now belongs to a man whose name will still be on the ballot for an Idaho House seat in two weeks.
John Shirts, a Weiser Republican elected to the Idaho House in 2024, was sworn in Sunday as Idaho's U.S. attorney. U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche appointed him to the post effective Oct. 18, and Chief U.S. District Judge Amanda K. Brailsford administered the oath in a private ceremony, the Justice Department announced Monday.
Shirts replaces Bart Davis, who retired Saturday at 71 after his second stint in the office. The new U.S. attorney is a fifth-generation Idahoan, an Air Force veteran and a former federal prosecutor who spent six years prosecuting cases for the same office he now leads.
Calling the safety of Idahoans and their communities "paramount," Shirts said in a statement released by the Justice Department that anyone who commits a federal crime in Idaho will be held accountable.
He listed terrorism, drug trafficking, violent crime, human trafficking and illegal immigration offenses among the cases his office will keep prosecuting.
What the office does for 44 counties
The U.S. attorney is the highest-ranking federal law enforcement official in Idaho. The district takes in all 44 counties and more than 83,000 square miles. Shirts now oversees a staff of 65, including 33 attorneys, working out of Boise, Pocatello and Coeur d'Alene.
The office prosecutes federal crimes statewide, from narcotics and firearms cases to immigration, terrorism and child exploitation. It also represents the federal government in civil lawsuits and collects debts owed to it.
Under Davis, the office reported 298 criminal charges over the past year. Drug trafficking accounted for 103 of them, violent crime for 89 and immigration for 69.
Shirts knows that docket from the inside. From 2018 to 2024 he worked as an assistant U.S. attorney in Idaho, handling federal criminal cases from the Pocatello and Boise offices before he ran for the Legislature.
From Weiser High to the Air Force JAG corps
Shirts grew up in Weiser and attended Weiser High School. He went on to the University of Idaho and earned his law degree at the University of Colorado, then clerked for District Judge Jonathan P. Brody in Rupert.
After the clerkship he was commissioned as an Air Force judge advocate. On active duty he advised the 51st Fighter Wing at Osan Air Base in South Korea, and he later joined the Air Force's Special Victims Unit, prosecuting sexual assault cases at 30 bases stretching from Germany to Hawaii. His decorations include the Korean Defense Service Medal and the Air Force Commendation Medal. He kept serving as an Air Force Reserve prosecutor after leaving active duty for the federal prosecutor's office in Idaho in 2018.
Voters in District 9 elected him to the House in 2024. At the Statehouse he served as vice chairman of the House Agricultural Affairs Committee and sponsored legislation to toughen sentencing requirements for people convicted of sexually abusing minors. He also proposed a resolution seeking a constitutional convention on congressional term limits, which did not advance.
Davis, the man he succeeds, practiced law in Idaho Falls and spent 19 years in the Idaho Senate, 15 of them as majority leader. He served as U.S. attorney from 2017 to 2021 and returned after the U.S. Senate confirmed him in October 2025. When Davis announced his retirement, Gov. Brad Little credited him with strengthening ties between Idaho and the Justice Department.
A ballot wrinkle for District 9
The appointment leaves voters in Shirts' district with an unusual ballot. He won the Republican primary for House Seat 9A in May with 75% of the vote and has no opponent in the Nov. 3 general election. The deadline to pull a name from the ballot has already passed, a spokesman for the Secretary of State's Office confirmed, so Shirts will appear as the only candidate for the seat.
A Boise television station reported Monday that it had confirmed Shirts submitted a resignation letter.
Idaho law spells out how an open legislative seat gets filled. The Republican legislative committee for District 9 would have 15 days to send the governor three nominees. The governor then has 15 days to appoint one of them. If no appointment comes in that window, the committee picks one of its three nominees itself.
The process gives the district's own Republican leaders the first say on any replacement, while the governor makes the appointment.
How long the appointment can run
Davis reached the job through a presidential nomination and Senate confirmation. Shirts' appointment came from the U.S. attorney general instead. Federal law lets the attorney general fill a vacant U.S. attorney's office, but it limits how long that appointee can serve: until a U.S. attorney nominated by the president and confirmed by the Senate takes office, or 120 days, whichever comes first. Counted from Oct. 18, that 120-day mark falls in mid-February 2027. If the clock runs out first, the federal district court in Idaho can name a U.S. attorney to hold the job until the post is filled.
For now, Idaho's federal prosecutors answer to a Weiser native who once prosecuted cases out of two of their offices, tried sexual assault cases for the Air Force around the world and pushed for tougher sentences for people who sexually abuse children.