Montana
National
Partner Resources
-
National Survey Reflects High Trust in State Courts
State courts generally maintain high public trust, valued for fairness and accessibility. However, approval can fluctuate due to political factors, high-profile decisions, and perceptions of judicial independence. In its recently released 2024 State of State Courts the National Center for the State Courts report that nearly two-thirds of Americans express trust and confidence in state […] -
True North Issues New Research Report Detailing Who Is Targeting State Courts to Limit Freedoms
Who is Targeting State Supreme Courts to Limit Our Freedoms -
-
-
True North Research
True North Issues New Research Report Detailing Who Is Targeting State Courts to Limit Freedoms -
Montana Supreme Court
Montana’s Judicial Branch aims to ensure fair access to justice and to foster public trust and confidence in the state’s courts. -
Brennan Center for Justice
The Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law is a nonprofit organization with a liberal or progressive stance, focusing on law and public policy initiatives. -
A Past and Future of Judicial Elections: The Case of Montana
Judicial elections are approaching their second century in the United States, and they are not going away anytime soon. After the rise of Jacksonian Democracy in the early nineteenth century, and popular calls for increased judicial independence from the political branches, most states hard-wired the election of judges into state constitutions. Despite reform efforts that emerged in the twentieth century and continue today, states that hold judicial elections reliably reject alternative selection methods. Nearly ninety percent of state judges in the United States are subject to election. -
-
Montana Judicial Elections: Does the Past Hold Lessons for Future
Montanans never much liked outside influence in their judiciary, and their first line of defense was judicial elections. This may strike us as odd now, in our Citizens United era of unlimited outside money and even national party politics entering our Supreme Court campaigns. Yet the outsider problem and our electoral solution are older than statehood itself. After seeing record amounts of money spent on court candidates in the last campaign, and with three seats on the ballot this fall, it is worth considering where we’ve been and where we’re headed on Montana’s judicial campaign trail.