Montana Legislature

Friends of the Third Branch focuses on tracking and advocating on legislation and other matters impacting our courts and Montana’s Constitution.

Much of the proposed legislation impacting courts is difficult to put in perspective and uses complicated language. We work to provide timely, factual, and easy-to-understand information to our 3,000 supporters, nonprofits, and other interested parties so that they can take action.

Our small group is often the first to alert others to these issues. For example, our fact sheets on mandamus and partisan judicial races provided the information other groups needed to share with their members. Distilling complex attacks on the judiciary is our strength.

In just a few years, we’ve had tremendous success.

• We worked with partners to defeat proposed Constitutional Amendments in 2023. 
• Provided real-time updates and analysis on more than 100 judicial-related bills in the 2023 and 2025 Montana Legislative Sessions. 
• Helped defeat dozens of bills and other efforts to make judicial elections partisan. 
• Built a growing network of thousands of Montanans committed to judicial fairness. 
• Created accessible fact sheets and guides on court structure, judicial selection, and proposed reforms.