Montana lawmakers can now decide if their communication with lobbyists and outside groups is available to the public. That’s due to a court order from a Lewis and Clark County judge.
Montana district judge Christopher Abbott this summer ruled that lawmakers' communications with private individuals were privileged, and therefore not subject to the public’s right to know.
That information was previously kept in public record as part of “junque files”. Those are folders documenting communications between lawmakers and other parties while drafting bills.
Legislator’s staff attorneys say individual lawmakers can sign waivers giving up their privilege and make those communications public, but Abbott’s ruling means they’re not obligated to.
Abbott ordered that copies of bill drafts and lawmakers’ communications with other government officials remain public.
The order came in an ongoing lawsuit over the 2023 Legislature’s redrawing of maps for seats on the Public Service Commission.
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