Fighting for our Democracy

Help us rally behind to CI-132 to ensure we maintain our non-partisan courts in Montana

If we think back to the 2025 Montana Legislative Session, many will recall the attempts to dismantle our democracy through attacks on the Montana courts. Dozens of bill drafts targeted the elections of judges and justices, provided for political party donations to judicial campaigns, and sought to create a new court system altogether. Years prior to the last session, judges struck down many bills passed by the legislature as “unconstitutional”, leading the majority party to believe that the courts were “legislating from the bench.”

Northern Plains members involved in our fight to defend democracy have learned have learned, however, is that not only are our courts providing the checks and balances on a legislative body, as they were intended to do, but are a true pillar of Montana’s democracy. We have seen other states lean into partisan elections and the results are clear: Court systems suffer when judges and justices become politicized. The last two legislative sessions felt like battle after battle to preserve our nonpartisan elections of judges and justices in Montana. Voters lined up to testify to say “we don’t want this” but majority leadership remained disciplined with a singular goal in mind: Give the Legislature and Governor full reign to do whatever they please.

Then steps in Montanans for Nonpartisan Courts (MNC). MNC seeks to enshrine our judicial elections as nonpartisan in the Montana Constitution. CI-132 is our democracy in action: voters get to decide the fate of this initiative on the 2026 election ballot. The first step, before we make it to the Nov. ballot, is to collect enough signatures to get on the ballot.