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.