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Montana Supreme Court Allows Abortion Ballot Proposal to Proceed
After two months of litigation and consideration, the Montana Supreme Court on Monday overruled the state attorney general’s January finding that a constitutional initiative to explicitly protect abortion rights is “legally insufficient,” resolving one of many obstacles to the proposal being placed before voters on the November ballot.
The ruling, signed by six of the court’s seven justices and authored by Justice Ingrid Gustafson, found that the proposal submitted last fall by Planned Parenthood Advocates of Montana did not improperly “logroll” distinct subjects together and that Attorney General Austin Knudsen exceeded his authority by concluding that the proposal would confuse voters and conflict with other sections of the Constitution — a conclusion that could have blocked the proposal from proceeding.
What is Montana Constitutional Initiative (CI) 126?
Montanans are exercising their Constitutional right to amend the state Constitution through the initiative process in 2024. You may be approached by supporters of CI126 to sign a petition to put a proposed Constitutional amendment on the ballot for the general election in the fall of 2024 that would significantly alter our partisan election system.
Currently, Montana uses primary elections to nominate party candidates who advance to the general election. In a primary election, voters select one qualified political party’s ballot and choose from that party’s slate of candidates for various elected offices. Party winners are the party’s nominee for office. Sometimes a political party does not have any candidates running for a specific office; voters who choose that party’s ballot will not cast a “primary” vote for that elected office.
Beleaguered Montana Democrats are hoping this year’s legislative election cycle, the first conducted with new state House and Senate maps drawn following the 2020 census, might give them a chance to edge into the historic Republican supermajority that shaped the politics of the 2023 Montana Legislature.
The minority party, which currently holds 32 of 100 House seats and 16 of 50 Senate seats, is unlikely to win outright majorities in either chamber in the November general election. However, even a handful of additional seats would give Democrats more negotiating leverage on issues where occasionally fractious Montana Republicans don’t maintain a united front.