Some may consider it mere coincidence that over the past 40 years, the Montana Supreme Court has struck down almost every conservative ballot measure (referenda and initiatives) that has come before it, while upholding every liberal one — including seven examples of such conduct in the past 10 years alone.
Likewise, maybe it’s only coincidence that during this same period, our high court has openly disrespected the lawmaking prerogatives of the state legislature, blowing up one conservative statute after another, while standing firmly in the quicksand of judicial activism.
But these brazen outcomes are predictable, not coincidental, as two massive studies by Rob Natelson on the high court’s legacy of decision-making chaos have documented. (Read on FrontierInstitute.org). The Court has, in fact, set on its head, our entire concept of fair, objective, truth-based, constitutionally-grounded justice. When constitutional law and the evidentiary record are subject to the whims and political biases of advocacy justices, justice no longer exists, and our faith and confidence in the very system that preserves our liberties is diminished.
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Montanans, listen up. Every two years, we have been electing Montana Supreme Court candidates who are blatant political advocates. There is no other explanation for why the MSC is so out of step with other state courts —let alone with the fundamentally conservative values of Montana citizens — and why its twisted and legally convoluted rulings are so frequently and embarrassingly overturned.
Because judicial elections in Montana are required to be non-partisan, voters remain largely uninformed about the judicial (and political) philosophies of the candidates. After all, no candidate will admit to being advocacy-oriented, but the state’s wealthy trial lawyers and left-wing special interests know exactly who will do their bidding, and who will pave a legal freeway to a more aggressive, interventionist government that lines their pockets. Their massive financial backing enables those candidates to swamp the opposition in almost every Supreme Court race.
While the Court’s leftist ideology is ubiquitous, the poster boy for bigotry is Justice Ingrid Gustafson. Gustafson’s in-your-face political bias is so egregious that, in this writer’s opinion, it seriously compromises her ability to function as an impartial, non-prejudicial jurist. Montana’s news reporters should be shining a light on her outrages, but maybe they have dead batteries in their flashlights.
