Supreme Court Rejects Montana Election Law Case Supported by GOP

A major case put forth by the GOP to challenge the power of judges in state election cases has fallen short.

On January 21, 2025, the Supreme Court declined to hear a case on legal theory presented by Montana Secretary of State Christi Jacobsen.

The Court ruling was not signed, nor was any reason given for the declination, as is the norm.

Rejected

Montana Republicans were pushing back against election laws that were defeated in state court.

The Montana Supreme Court ruled against Republicans after laws had been passed to end same-day voter registration as well as trying to block paid ballot collection.

The laws were challenged by the Montana Democrat Party, which argued the new laws made it more challenging for new voters, the elderly, people with disabilities, and Native Americans to vote.

When the new laws were litigated, the courts ruled that the new laws violated the state constitution.

Republicans used the independent state legislature theory to argue that the courts did not have the power to intervene in elections.

This was the same argument used in a North Carolina case to fight courts getting involved in electoral maps.

All is not over, however, as the court’s initial ruling does leave some room for arguing the scope of power of the court in these matters.

I would imagine the Montana GOP will move forward with challenging these rulings with a different approach until it can get the Supreme Court to accept the case.

With the GOP now in power, I would hope they can come up with reasonable election laws that will enable them to get enough support in the Senate to pass, but Dems seem to hold the line on this issue.

While Democrats continue to talk about free and fair elections, they fight every measure that the GOP has put forward to ensure the person casting the ballot is not fraudulent.

To that point, not only do blue states not require ID to vote, in some states, polling station workers are not even permitted to look at an ID even if is presented.