Judicial activism at work in recent court ruling

“The Legislature shall provide by law the requirements for residence, registration, absentee voting, and administration of elections.” It doesn’t get much clearer than that line in Article IV, Section 3 of Montana’s Constitution.

Unless of course you’re an activist judge who doesn’t like common sense laws duly passed by the people’s representatives, the democratically elected Legislature. In that case, you’ll just go ahead and block those laws in favor of your political allies, exactly as District Court Judge Michael Moses did recently.

The laws in question are entirely reasonable and are supported by Montanans throughout the state. One of them requires voter identification to ensure that a person seeking to vote in an election is eligible to do so because they’re indeed a citizen and a resident of Montana. The new law requires photo ID with a Montana address. Or, alternatively, you can use a photo ID without an address but also supply other proof of address. If even that doesn’t work, you can sign an affidavit and still vote, but that vote can then be checked for eligibility and thrown out if the person isn’t a legal voter.

The other three laws in question move the voter registration deadline to noon the day before the election, prohibit partisan political operatives from being paid to harvest ballots, and prohibit people from receiving ballots until they’ve met the age and residency requirements to be eligible to vote.

Democrats don’t like these sensible laws for some reason, but the laws are completely within the bounds of Montana’s Constitution, further secure our elections, and don’t prevent any eligible registered voter from exercising their fundamental constitutional right to vote. Which is why Judge Moses’s recent ruling is so infuriating and so outside the bounds of our constitutional separation of powers.

Barely a month before ballots go out for the June primary, Judge Moses unilaterally blocked all these commonsense laws at the request of the Montana Democratic machine. His ruling hardly even touched on legal, constitutional analysis, let alone Article IV, Section 3 of the Constitution. Instead, he engaged mostly in a “he said, she said” debate between the parties in the lawsuit over whether they like the new laws or not.

In such a flimsy ruling, it’s no surprise that Moses sided with the activist liberals. He was originally appointed to the bench by a Democratic governor. Every partisan donation his household has made, over $1,500 in total, has gone to Democrats.

We have a lot of good judges in Montana who are committed to fulfilling their strictly judicial roles as required by the separation of powers in our Constitution. Unfortunately, we also have way too many activist judges who let their political and policy views cloud their decisions on the bench.

To them we say: if you want to go beyond assessing constitutionality, and instead express your own views of what’s good or bad policy, if you want to change the law to fit your political preferences, if you want to advocate for policies, then run for the Legislature. That’s what we all did. The Legislature is the policymaking branch of government, not the judiciary. Your job is to interpret the laws. If you want to write them, or get rid of the ones you don’t like, you’re in the wrong office.

For too long, our part-time, citizen Legislature and the people of Montana haven’t paid enough attention to what’s been going on within Montana’s judicial branch of government. That’s over now. Judges are always happy to tell others when they’re in the wrong, but too many don’t want the same accountability for themselves. Keep political activism out of our courts. Respect the separation of powers guaranteed under our Constitution. Judge Moses’s unjustifiable activist ruling needs to be overturned immediately.

This opinion column is signed by 57 Republican members of the Legislature:

Carbon County

Rep. Seth Berglee

Cascade County

Rep. Wendy McKamey

Rep. Ed Buttrey

Rep. Jeremy Trebas

Rep. Scot Kerns

Rep. Steve Gist

Rep. Steven Galloway

Custer County

Sen. Ken Bogner

Dawson County

Rep. Bob Phalen

Flathead County

Sen. Mark Blasdel

Sen. Keith Regier

Rep. Amy Regier

Rep. John Fuller

Sen. Carl Glimm

Rep. Derek Skees

Rep. Matt Regier

Gallatin County

Rep. Caleb Hinkle

Sen. Gordon Vance

Rep. Jennifer Carlson

Rep. Jedediah Hinkle

Rep. Jane Gillette

Jefferson County

Rep. Marta Bertoglio

Lake County

Sen. Greg Hertz

Rep. Linda Reksten

Liberty County

Sen. Russ Tempel

Lincoln County

Sen. Mike Cuffe

Rep. Steve Gunderson

Madison County

Rep. Ken Walsh

McCone County

Rep. Jerry Schillinger

Meagher County

Rep. Wylie Galt

Missoula County

Rep. Brad Tschida

Philips County

Rep. Casey Knudsen

Pondera County

Rep. Llew Jones

Powell County

Rep. Becky Beard

Ravalli County

Sen. Jason Ellsworth

Rep. Sharon Greef

Rep. Ron Marshall

Rep. David Bedey

Roosevelt County

Rep. Rhonda Knudsen

Sanders County

Rep. Paul Fielder

Sen. Bob Brown

Stillwater County

Sen. David Howard

Rep. Fiona Nave

Sweet Grass County

Sen. John Esp

Teton County

Rep. Ross Fitzgerald

Wibaux County

Sen. Steve Hinebauch

Yellowstone County

Rep. Sue Vinton

Sen. Cary Smith

Rep. Barry Usher

Sen. Doug Kary

Sen. Tom McGillvray

Rep. Kerri Seekins-Crowe

Rep. Sherry Essmann

Rep. Mallerie Stromswold

Sen. Brad Molnar

Rep. Terry Moore

Rep. Vince Ricci