MTGOP Escalates Efforts to Dismantle the Independent Judiciary
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Wednesday, March 30, 2022
CONTACT
press@montanademocrats.org
MTGOP Escalates Efforts to Dismantle the Independent Judiciary
Helena, MT – Governor Gianforte, Senator Steve Daines, Representative Matt Rosendale, Attorney General Knudsen, and the entire executive board of the MTGOP took an unprecedented step of endorsing a candidate in the Montana Supreme Court race, as announced in a press release from the MTGOP today.
The Montana GOP has spent the last year systematically trying to undermine the independence of the judicial system in Montana in order to destroy the last remaining check and balance to their power. They tried to “manufacture a crisis” in order to subpoena Supreme Court Justices, publicly bashed sitting Justices at fundraising events, and pushed through anti-judiciary legislation aimed at making the courts more partisan, making it easier to remove justices, and undermining the legitimacy of the courts themselves.
The slate of judicial legislation the GOP majority passed in 2021 reveals a troubling and systematic effort to dismantle the very foundation of the independent judiciary. Let’s review:
SB 140 repealed the non-partisan Judicial Nomination Commission, giving the governor direct power to choose who fills vacancies.
HB 380 inserted partisanship into the judicial process by requiring Senate confirmation for members of the Judicial Standards Commission
SB 319 was the first bill of two that would drastically increase the number of cases over which a judge would be required to recuse themselves. SB 319 requires judges to recuse themselves from cases with attorneys who have donated to a third party group who then subsequently donated to their campaign. The bill was amended dramatically at the 11th hour with no public comment on its final form.
SB 402 required that judges recuse themselves for taking public positions on policy, even in the course of their standard interactions with the Legislature. This bill was also amended at the last minute with no public comment.
HB 325 would gerrymander the Supreme Court elections into regional districts instead of statewide, which has been described as a “back-door attempt” to make the Supreme Court more conservative. The bill was found unconstitutional last week.
HR 7 and SR 97 expended taxpayer resources to insert the Legislature into the lawsuit challenging SB 140
HJ 40 set up a two-pronged interim study on the Judicial Standards Commission to manufacture more pretexts to keep attacking the independence of the judiciary.
Of the bills the GOP legislature tried but failed to pass, their anti-judiciary attacks were just as obvious.
SB 271 tried but failed to allow judicial candidates to announce political endorsements. The bill failed in part because lawmakers were concerned it would make the Supreme Court fatally partisan. [That concern has certainly not stopped sitting Montana GOP elected officials from endorsing the judges publicly.]
SB 318 and SB 252 tried but failed to dramatically expand the definition of “malfeasance,” which is an impeachable offense for judicial officers.
HB 342 and HB 355 tried, in what may be the most naked attempt to undermine the non-partisan and independent nature of the judiciary, to allow partisan nominations and elections for Supreme Court justices and other judges, as well as allow political party contributions.
HB 685 tried but failed to dramatically transform the Judicial Standards Commission into a tool to harass and summarily remove judges for political reasons.
“What the GOP is attempting to do is unprecedented and deeply troubling– nothing less than an all-out attack on a co-equal branch of government,” says Sheila Hogan, Executive Director of the Montana Democratic Party. “If your unconstitutional legislation keeps getting struck down in court, don’t try to dismantle the courts in a childish and dangerous effort to get your way– simply pass better legislation.”
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