Senate President: “No wonder” Montana Supreme Court Didn’t Want a Public Hearing
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Only one person spoke in support of a controversial proposed amendment to put abortion into Montana’s state constitution at a public hearing of the Legislature’s Law and Justice Interim Committee today.
In contrast, dozens of Montanans spoke out against Constitutional Initiative 128, describing it as misleading and confusing to voters and too controversial of a change to the Montana Constitution.
The committee unanimously sided with the public opposition and voted to oppose the initiative.
The Legislature’s hearing and vote comes after the Montana Supreme Court took extraordinary measures to treat CI-128 differently than all other recent ballot initiatives, including others that are currently out for signature gathering. The justices threatened to hold Secretary of State Christi Jacobsen in contempt of court if she did not issue the initiative to pro-abortion special interest groups without it having a public hearing at the Legislature, the normal process initiatives must go through before signature gathering begins.
“It’s no wonder the Montana Supreme Court took extreme lengths to try to avoid having a public hearing on this controversial initiative,” said Senate President Jason Ellsworth, R-Hamilton. “The Montana public came out strongly against the initiative when given the opportunity to make their voices heard. To put it plainly, the Court sided with special interests groups who’ve spent fix figures to put many of them on the bench and sided against transparency and public participation in this process. The justices should be embarrassed by their naked political partisanship that is undermining the Court’s reputation and the very concept of equal treatment under the law.”
“We are treating this proposed ballot initiative exactly the same as all other initiatives, which is the only fair and just thing to do,” said Representative Amy Regier, R-Kalispell, who chairs the Law and Justice Interim Committee.
Ellsworth also addressed the fact that no Democratic legislators attended today’s committee hearing.
“I get that it’s frustrating being in the minority, but that’s no excuse for elected lawmakers intentionally failing to show up for the work that they were elected to do,” Ellsworth said. “I can’t believe they would rob their constituents of the opportunity to be represented on such an important topic as a constitutional amendment.”
The only proponent for the initiative expressed disappointment that no Democrats were present for the committee meeting, saying she intended to find out why they didn’t show up.
The official vote of the bipartisan legislative committee is a unanimous 6-0 in opposition to the initiative.
Sourced from Press Release sent by,
Kyle Schmauch
Communications & Policy Manager
Senate Republicans
Montana Legislature
