Abortion-rights advocates are asking the Montana Supreme Court to force the secretary of state to allow signature-collecting to begin on a ballot initiative. It’s the latest in a fast-moving legal back-and-forth ahead of a June deadline to collect signatures needed to certify the constitutional initiative to protect abortion access for the ballot.
Republican Senate President Jason Ellsworth on Tuesday subpoenaed Secretary of State Christi Jacobsen to send the initiative’s language to a legislative committee. There, lawmakers would have up to two weeks to perform a legislative review.
But, state Supreme Court justices suggested in a recent opinion Jacobsen could certify the initiative without legislative input.
Plaintiffs asked the court to clarify the status of the initiative by the end of Wednesday.
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Six Republican state lawmakers Thursday voted in disapproval of a proposed constitutional amendment to protect access to abortion. -
A campaign for a constitutional abortion rights amendment in Montana may soon begin collecting signatures to put the measure before voters this fall. But that process has been pushed back by Republican officials challenging the initiative’s content and by legal rulings. -
A constitutional amendment to protect abortion moves closer to getting on the ballot. The Republican fight with the judiciary keeps escalating. And the winner of the Republican eastern district congressional primary may boil down to who loves the Trump the most. -
The Montana Supreme Court has cleared the way for proponents of a abortion rights ballot initiative to begin collecting signatures.
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Abortion-rights advocates have asked the Montana Supreme Court to force the secretary of state to allow signature gathering to begin on a ballot initiative. It’s part of a fast-moving legal back-and-forth ahead of a June deadline to collect signatures needed to certify the constitutional initiative for the ballot.
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Republican lawmakers have ordered the Secretary of State to send a proposed ballot initiative to a legislative committee for review before signature-gathering begins. The request escalates tensions between the lawmakers and the state Supreme Court, which said this week such a review wasn’t required.
