As far as ballot initiatives go, it doesn’t get much more straightforward than CI-132.
It reads: “CI-132 amends the Montana Constitution to require that judicial elections remain nonpartisan.”
“It’s really quite simple,” says retired Montana Supreme Court Justice Mike McGrath.
McGrath, along with 8 of his retired high court-colleagues and others in the judiciary support CI-132. McGrath says judges don’t bring their political leanings into the courtroom, adding he believes Montanans want to keep it that way.
"When people are required to go to court – and many times people would prefer not to be there – they want the case to be resolved based on the merits of that particular case, not some particular political view."
The Montana GOP argues that politics have infected the courts, regardless of the nonpartisan label. Republican state legislators have tried unsuccessfully to make judicial elections partisan during recent legislative sessions.
Longtime Republican State Sen. Barry Usher of Laurel supported those efforts. Usher served as Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee last session. He says the public deserves to know a judicial candidate’s core beliefs.
"We as Republicans believe that they should read the Constitution and rule based on the Constitution, not on the will of the people. That's the difference between us and the liberals. The liberals want them to rule in their favor all the time,” Usher says.
Usher says many otherwise well-informed Montana voters struggle to find good information on judicial candidates, adding that partisan elections would help them choose.
“I always go back to the U.S. Supreme Court, and if you don’t think that they’re partisan, all you have to do is watch the news.”
He says news organizations almost always name which presidents nominated the justices mentioned in the story.
Former Montana Supreme Court Justice Mike McGrath counters, judicial candidates are usually well known in their communities and their qualifications for the job can be ascertained by the community itself.
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