A proposed ballot initiative to keep Montana’s judicial elections nonpartisan is advancing after the state Supreme Court ruled that the attorney general overstepped by rewriting the measure.
The group Montanans for Nonpartisan Courts filed two similar proposals on judicial elections in hopes that at least one advances.
Attorney General Austin Knudsen blocked one of them, deeming it legally insufficient. He rewrote the other. His version suggested that judicial candidates are already aligned with political parties, and wouldn’t be allowed to disclose that affiliation if the ballot measure passed.
The proposal’s backers challenged that rewrite in court, arguing that it’s confusing and unwarranted. A majority of the Montana Supreme Court agreed and is allowing the original language to advance.
The high court, however, also agreed with Knudsen’s reasoning for blocking the other ballot measure.
The approved proposal now moves to the signature-gathering phase. An initiative must get 60,000 signatures of support from across Montana to win a spot on the next ballot.
