HELENA — The Montana Supreme Court has ruled in favor of a group sponsoring a proposed ballot measure that would require the state’s judicial elections remain nonpartisan. It comes less than a month after they sided with the backers of a similar initiative.
Montanans for Fair and Impartial Judges is sponsoring Constitutional Initiative 131, which would add three words to the Montana Constitution, to say state Supreme Court justices and district court judges must be elected “in nonpartisan elections.”
Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen’s office ruled CI-131 met the requirements to go before voters, but they rejected MFIJ’s proposed ballot language and substituted their own version. MFIJ went to the Supreme Court, asking justices to overturn that decision.
Justices ruled unanimously that Knudsen hadn’t shown evidence that MFIJ’s ballot statement didn’t comply with state law, so he didn’t have the authority to change it.
MFIJ political director Pepper Petersen told MTN he always expected this outcome.
“It’s good to know the Montana Supreme Court sides with the law,” he said.
In November, the Supreme Court made a similar ruling, overturning Knudsen’s decision to revise the ballot statement for Constitutional Initiative 132 – the other measure aiming to enshrine nonpartisan judicial elections in the Montana Constitution. Montanans for Nonpartisan Courts, the group behind that proposal, officially launched their signature-gathering efforts several days later.
“We are disappointed the Court once again ruled to advance a ballot statement with the apparent goal to mislead Montana voters,” Amanda Braynack, a spokesperson for Knudsen's office, said in a statement to MTN after the latest ruling.
CI-132 would add a section to the state constitution saying, “Judicial elections shall remain nonpartisan.” Its effect would be slightly broader than CI-131, since it would apply to all judicial elections, not just Supreme Court and district court races.
Montana judicial elections have been conducted on a nonpartisan basis since 1936. Lawmakers have debated proposals to introduce party labels to judicial elections each of the last three legislative sessions, but none have been successful. If either CI-131 or CI-132 reaches the ballot and gets voter approval, the Legislature wouldn’t be able switch to partisan elections without another amendment that would have to go before voters.
It will take at least 60,241 signatures from registered voters to get one of these constitutional initiatives on the ballot – 10% of the votes cast in last year’s election for governor.
Petersen said, because of winter weather, any serious effort to gather signatures wouldn’t start for several months, and in the meantime, MFIJ is continuing to explore all options.
“The campaign continues to move forward,” he said.
