A Primer: Judicial Reform as Montana Legislature Gets Underway
Montana's Legislative session only meets every other year for about 90 days. That session starts Monday, as state lawmakers and statewide office holders will be sworn in at the Montana capitol.
One of the biggest issues facing the Montana Legislature this session is judicial reform.
As someone who first started in statewide talk radio in 2009, I can guarantee you that one of the biggest complaints we get every election is that noone knows anything about these candidates for judge and Supreme Court justice. So what often happens? Out of state dark money and Left wing groups flood the state with cash backing the more Left wing candidate. And then those judges and justices basically legislate from the bench in far too many instances.
State Senate Majority Leader Tom McGillvray (R-Billings) joined us on the radio towards the end of 2024 to talk about the 20-plus judicial reform proposals being put forward by the Senate Select Committee on the Judiciary. We also caught up with former University of Montana Constitutional law professor Rob Natelson, who is now a fellow with the Independence Institute based in Colorado. (Full audio with both can be be heard below).
Natelson has referred to the Montana Supreme Court as "America's worst court." We talked about a column he wrote in December titled, "The Lesson from Montana: Stop Judicial Usurpation Before It Becomes Too Late."
Sen. McGillvray, meanwhile, described several common sense reforms that are being advocated by state legislators and independent citizens serving on the select committee on the judiciary. One idea is to create a Constitutional court that would specifically address state government issues. Another idea would create a special business court to handle business cases, much like the state has a water court to tackle water issues. Lawmakers on the committee (Democrats declined to even participate) also want candidates to be able to run with a political party affiliation so that voters have more info on the candidates they are voting for.
Full audio below.