Knudsen
HELENA, Mont. – Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen’s interpretation of a ballot initiative that would keep corporations from spending on political campaigns has been largely upheld by the state Supreme Court.
The justices have been asked multiple times to decide arguments between Transparent Election Initiative and Knudsen, ruling in April that the measure can be put to voters. But Knudsen wasn’t happy with TEI’s wording and replaced it with his own, leading to yet another fight.
On June 9, most of Knudsen’s April 29 changes were affirmed as voters prepare to decide whether to accept Initiative 194, which seeks to label corporations as “artificial persons” and strip their rights to expend money or anything of value to influence the outcome of a vote of the electorate.
Meanwhile, TEI says it has gathered the required amount of signatures in its “David versus Goliath” fight. Knudsen took issue with that stance, finding the idea that only corporations would be identified as “artificial persons” in the initiative’s language would be misleading to voters.
That’s because it would also apply to nonprofits, trusts, trade associations and labor unions, among other entities. The Supreme Court agreed with Knudsen and also found his use of the word “prohibition” as to political spending was accurate. TEI argued it was misleading because the initiative “specifies the scope of powers granted to artificial persons.”
“This disagreement is a dispute over whether the glass is half-full or half-empty; however you might want to describe it, the contents of the glass are at 50% capacity and neither characterization is misleading,” Justice James Jeremiah Shea ruled.
The ballot initiative is called the “Montana Plan” and is a project of TEI and founder Jeff Mangan. TEI calls it a first-of-its-kind effort to keep “secret-donor money” out of the state’s elections.
TEI is a group dedicated to fighting against the U.S. Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision, which held that corporate spending on political issues is protected under the First Amendment.
Groups like the Montana Mining Association and the Montana Chamber of Commerce have fought the initiative, saying it violates the free speech rights of corporations, as it would prohibit them from spending money or “anything of value” on political matters.
Only one statement in Knudsen’s version of the initiative went too far, the court ruled. “Artificial persons would not have any other powers under the Montana Constitution,” will not be expressed to voters.
