Protecting Montana's Constitution, Judiciary, and Democracy
Elections Matter
"Cascade County meeting was a demonstration of un-American values" Op-Ed by Pam Carroll (Big Sky 55+ Board Member), Daily Montanan, December 31, 2023.
"As I sat in the audience listening to the public comments, I was so ashamed of the behavior of those speaking in opposition to the resolution. These are my neighbors who used threats, yelled and told outright lies. The Bible quotes were thrown out over and over to attack commissioners Joe Briggs and Jim Larson. Two pastors in our community spewed hateful words. Not once did I hear these so-called church-attending people speak to the call to love thy neighbor as thyself." Read the Op-Ed here.
"Cascade County has become a perfect example of our national politics" by Darryl Ehrlick, Daily Montanan, December 21, 2023
"In a time where competency and civility look quaint and bygone, the rot that seems to plague national politics has taken root deeply into local politics." Read more here.
Cascade County Clerk and Recorder stripped of election duties, by Nicole Girten, Daily Montanan, December 12, 2023
"The resolution, brought by Briggs, cited the lawsuits against the county “for irregularities and technical errors in the elections she has thus far conducted” and the expense of litigation the county is incurring as well as the potential cost of rerunning one or more elections." Read more here.
Mike Cooney, Bob Brown & Linda McCulloch: "Don't Mess with Montana's Good Elections." Missoula Current, April 14, 2023
"HB 774 is a clear and present danger to that sterling Montana record — a hasty and poorly thought-out attempt to force virtually all elections onto one day and one ballot. This 118 page bill will bring chaos, complications and confusion to Montana voters, not clarity." Read more here.
Gary Buchanan, Sid Daoud and Marc Racicot: "Senate Bill 566 a bad idea for Montana elections." Billings Gazette, April 7, 2023
"Right now, some Republican members of the Montana Legislature are attempting, at the last minute, to manipulate our election laws as they apply to one political race and one election in 2024, namely the election of a United States Senator....This whole surreptitious endeavor is just one more example of the unrelenting compulsion of the Republican Party leadership to accumulate political power and control over every form and branch of government." Read more here.
Ken Toole Op-Ed: "Nothing New about the New Montana GOP"
Missoula Current, April 6, 2023
"The purges within the Republican Party are only part of the takeover by far-right extremists in Montana. They also seek to purge virtually everyone they disagree with from being able to fully participate in society. Sexual minorities, native people, immigrants, and low-income people are all being targeted as lazy, perverted and a threat to “the rest of us”. Creating an environment of us vs them as a mechanism to mobilize hate is as old as humanity itself. Nothing good has ever come from it." Read more here.
Higher Education
Mary Sheehy Moe Op-Ed: HB 517? Just Say 'Whoa", The Missoulian, March 19, 2023
"What’s really going on with HB 517 is a tale as old as time: A kid doesn’t like the answer he got from Mom so he goes to Dad. Last year Republican legislators got an answer they didn’t like from Montana’s Supreme Court when the regents challenged HB 102, a 2021 bill requiring campuses to allow firearms on campus." Read more here.
And click here for our legislative Bulletin discussing HB 517.
Independent Judiciary
Retired Supreme Court Justice James Nelson "SB 458: An Attempt to Legalize Discrimination"
"Bottom line: discrimination based on sex is absolutely prohibited as a matter of Constitutional law, and it cannot be legalized by adopting a scientifically flawed, religiously grounded statute." Read more here.
Op-Ed: Marc Racicot: Citizen Grand Juries Will Create Chaos
“It doesn't take long to visualize the inevitable chaos and spectacle that will attend the creation of a Byzantine citizens grand jury procedure; nor, but for a moment, to foresee the unlimited expense to the county within which the grand jury is impaneled.” Read more here.
Op-Ed: Montana lawmakers are becoming the lapdogs of tyranny, by James Nelson
"There can be no clearer evidence of Montana’s spiral into fascism than the supermajority/Freedom Caucus’ jihad against our state’s fair, independent and impartial judiciary.
Make no mistake, this jihad is nothing less than a power-grab, designed to destroy the third, co-equal branch of government, along with the separation of powers and system of checks and balances that have served our state from its founding." Read Full Op-Ed here
Op-Ed: Montana Chapter of the American Board of Trial Advocates: Judicial Independence
“There is no liberty if the power of judging be not separated from the legislative and executive powers.” Alexander Hamilton, Federalist No. 78.
It is easy to attack those who cannot defend themselves. Ethical rules prevent judges from responding to partisan punches, even in self-defense. Despite this fact, politicians of all stripes tend to sound off when they learn of judicial decisions they don’t like. Sometimes though, political disagreements escalate into personal attacks on judges and legislative proposals to undermine and dominate the judicial branch.
When that happens, watch out, because freedom is in danger. Read Full Op-Ed here.