Tag Archives: State: Montana

One News Now: “A bill to grant carte blanche to teenagers failed in the last session of the Montana state legislature. But Planned Parenthood is now attacking the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), which supposedly prohibits coverage of prescriptions of birth control.”

Missoulian: “Montana is one of only five states that forbids the Children’s Health Insurance Program from paying for birth-control products – and, as part of the budget deal struck by lawmakers over the weekend, that ban will remain intact. Sen. John Brueggeman, R-Polson, this month inserted language into a pair of budget bills to allow CHIP to start paying for contraception for teenage children covered by the government insurance program.”

Politico: “President Barack Obama’s Justice Department has quietly agreed to move a pornography prosecution out of socially conservative Montana to more urbane New Jersey – fueling perceptions by some attorneys that the new administration is stepping back from the aggressive approach the Bush administration took to prosecuting obscenity . . . But Patrick Trueman, a former obscenity prosecutor pressing the new administration to do more to battle pornography, said critics were jumping the gun by blaming the Obama team for moving the Goldman case.”

LifeNews reports: “So far, the court has received 19 amicus briefs, including one from attorneys with the Alliance Defense Fund, a pro-life group who filed their brief in April. ‘Legalizing assisted suicide diminishes compassionate treatment of pain because…assisted suicide encourages the elimination of patients themselves rather than of their suffering,’ the brief states. ‘The dignity and privacy rights of vulnerable patients require that they not be propelled into a society where they can be successfully pressured to die. Their lives are valuable and protectable by law.’”

Great Falls Tribune: “Great Falls police arrested former Mayor and Cascade County Commissioner Gayle Morris on Thursday afternoon on charges that he promoted prostitution at his Sun Prairie strip club.”

Right Side News has posted an Alliance Defense Fund video and transcript detailing the Montana Canyon Ferry Road Baptist Church 9th Circuit victory. On Feb 25th, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit reversed a ruling which had upheld as constitutional a Montana commissioner’s determination that a church violated state law by not registering as an “incidental political committee.”

John S. Adams, Capitol bureau chief for the Great Falls Tribune, reports on his blog: “Right to Life of Montana, the Montana Family Foundation and the Montana Catholic Conference will not support the campaign to get a so-called “personhood” amendment on the 2010 ballot.”

John S. Adams reports in the Great Falls Tribune: “A Montana anti-abortion group launched a new campaign on Wednesday aimed at changing the state’s constitution to define ‘personhood’ as all human beings ‘from the beginning of the biological development of that human being.’”

“The law school requires all students to pay fees to support student groups but then allows distribution of those fees to be skewed toward groups with viewpoints favored by the Student Bar Association.”

Mark Z. Barabak writes at the LA Times: “Frustrated by the expanded power of Washington, a growing number of state lawmakers are defying the federal government and passing legislation aimed at rolling back the reach of Congress and President Obama. While many measures are symbolic ones declaring the sovereignty of states, some Westerners are taking more dramatic steps. One Utah lawmaker wants to limit federal law enforcement in his state. In Montana, legislators enacted a bill that flagrantly ignores federal firearm restrictions, hoping to force a constitutional showdown.”

John S. Adams reports in the Great Falls Tribune: “Planned Parenthood of Montana filed a complaint Monday with the Montana Human Rights Bureau over a provision in the state Children’s Health Insurance Program that prohibits coverage of prescription birth control.”

Vincent R. Caravan writes in The Valley News: “Now Pastor B. G. Stumberg and his small Baptist church were in the national news, but also in potential trouble, like losing its non-profit status and becoming a political action committee. The Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) enters the fray at this point. Its objective was to uphold the principle that churches have a right to speak to moral-political subjects from the pulpit…”

Religion Clause: “In Christian Legal Society v. Eck, 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 42980 (D MT, May 19, 2009), a Montana federal district court accepted a magistrate’s recommendations and upheld the University of Montana Law School’s non-discrimination and open-membership policies for recognized student groups.”

Charles S. Johnson reports in the Billings Gazette: “The Montana ProLife Coalition is proposing a 2010 constitutional initiative that ultimately could ban abortion by declaring that human life begins when an egg is fertilized.”

Proud Parenting: “Montana – Lesbian Custody Case – Another case of ‘you are not the parent’ explained in detail by Julie Shapiro, who has a great blog with alot of information on many legal issues. Of course, one of the women did not adopt the children, which would likely not be allowed in Montana, and the other woman wants full custody. It is another unfortunate case that is even bringing in the Alliance Defense Fund, who opposes gay/lesbian rights.”

Catholic News Agency: “The Montana Supreme Court is considering whether to overturn a state judge’s ruling that Montana residents have a legal right to assisted suicide. On Thursday attorneys for the Chicago-based law firm Americans United for Life (AUL) filed an amicus curiae brief on behalf of a bipartisan group of 28 Montana senators and representatives . . . The Alliance Defense Fund has also filed an amicus curiae brief on behalf of the Catholic Medical Association, the American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists, the Family Research Council and Montana physicians.”

One News Now: Last week, ADF filed a friend-of-the-court brief in State of Montana v. Baxter, representing several groups, including the Family Research Council, and numerous Montana physicians. Steven Aden, senior legal counsel with ADF, explains their argument. “Under the Hippocratic Oath, doctors are licensed to heal, not to kill,” says the ADF attorney. “It should seem obvious, but the law should never allow private individuals to poison one another.

The Rutherford Institute: “Attorneys for The Rutherford Institute have filed a free speech lawsuit in the Montana Thirteenth Judicial District Court on behalf of a high school valedictorian who was forbidden from making any remarks at all in her school’s graduation ceremony after she refused to strip references to God and Christ from her valedictory speech. A copy of the complaint is available here

Pete Winn reports at CNSNews: “Another “friend-of-the-court” brief has been filed by the Alliance Defense Fund, a conservative legal group, on behalf of the Catholic Medical Association, the American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists, the Family Research Council and Montana physicians.”

Christian Medical Association and Christian Legal Society File Brief in Baxter v. Montana on Threat to Conscience Rights of Medical Professionals That Object to Assisting in Suicide

Helena Independent Record (AP): On Tuesday the Alliance Defense Fund, a conservative legal group, filed a brief on behalf of the Family Research Council, the American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists, the Catholic Medical Association and several Montana physicians. “Legalizing assisted suicide diminishes compassionate treatment of pain because … assisted suicide encourages the elimination of patients themselves rather than of their suffering,” the brief states. “The dignity and privacy rights of vulnerable patients require that they not be propelled into a society where they can be successfully pressured to die.”

CNSNews (AP): “In a bill passed by the Legislature earlier this month, the state is asserting that guns manufactured in Montana and sold in Montana to people who intend to keep their weapons in Montana are exempt from federal gun registration, background check and dealer-licensing rules because no state lines are crossed. That notion is all but certain to be tested in court.”

“Americans United for Life (AUL) today filed a friend of the court brief before the Montana Supreme Court on behalf of a bipartisan group of 28 Montana Senators and Representatives, arguing there is no right to assisted suicide under the State’s constitution.” The brief is here.

KPAX.com (AP): “On Tuesday the Alliance Defense Fund, a conservative legal group, filed a brief on behalf of the Family Research Council, the American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists, the Catholic Medical Association and several Montana physicians.”

LifeNews: Attorneys with the Alliance Defense Fund filed a friend-of-the-court brief Monday with the Montana Supreme Court. The brief asks the judges to not determine that the Montana Constitution allows a “right” to assisted suicide . . . “Doctors are licensed to heal, not to kill. It should seem obvious, but the law should never allow private individuals to poison one another,” ADF senior legal counsel Steven H. Aden told LifeNews.com.

“Doctors are licensed to heal, not to kill. It should seem obvious, but the law should never allow private individuals to poison one another,” said ADF Senior Legal Counsel Steven H. Aden.

Montana News Station: “In this case as a matter of law, there can only be one natural parent. Because we had a single parent adoption,” said Austin Nimocks, Maniaci’s senior legal council. “And when you look at the statutory parameters of who can become a natural parent and how they can become, that’s the only possible avenue.”

The ACLU has issued this press release that uses the term “parent” rather loosely and argues that the former partner of an adoptive parent should be granted parental rights in the absence of a showing of abuse, dependency, or neglect. Related ADF press release: ADF attorney to argue against ACLU attorney before Montana Supreme Court

“The fundamental rights of parents to raise children the way they see fit should not be threatened by the wishes and desires of a legal stranger,” said Nimocks.

Associated Press: “The fundamental rights of parents to raise children the way they see fit should not be threatened by the wishes and desires of a legal stranger,” said Austin R. Nimocks, senior legal counsel for the conservative Alliance Defense Fund, who will argue Maniaci’s appeal.”

Associated Press: “Four months after a District Court judge ruled that physician-assisted suicide is a right protected under the state’s constitution, terminally ill patients say they’re having trouble finding physicians willing to prescribe drugs that would hasten their deaths.”

Helena-IR reports: “Republican lawmakers opposed to abortion Tuesday blasted their Democratic colleagues at the Legislature for blocking several anti-abortion bills this past week, saying Democrats are allied with “the big business of killing babies.”

Two attorneys involved in defending Canyon Ferry Road Baptist Church in a recent victory at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit will make brief comments at a worship service at the church Sunday. ADF-allied attorney Tim Fox–a partner with the Helena law firm Gough, Shanahan, Johnson & Waterman, PLLP–and ADF Senior Counsel Gary McCaleb will be available for media interviews before and after a celebratory luncheon following the church service.

Tim Fox discusses the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals decision in Canyon Ferry Road Baptist Church v. Montana Commissioner of Political Practices that ruled the State of Montana had violated the Constitutional rights of a small rural Baptist Church when it required the Church to register as an incidental political committee for speaking in support of Montana’s CI-96 ballot initiative amending the Montana Constitution to define marriage as between one man and one woman.

AP: “A showdown is shaping up in some of the nation’s most conservative states over embryonic stem cell research, as opponents draw language and tactics from the battle over abortion to counter President Barack Obama’s plan to ease research restrictions.”

The Montana Kamin: “A University of Montana law professor who opposes the content of the Kaimin’s weekly sex column could eventually take the issue to the state legislature unless the newspaper establishes written policies for hiring columnists and reviewing content …

ADF attorney Dale Schowengerdt appeared on Talk from the Heart with Rich Buhler to discuss the case. The mp3 runs just over 9 minutes.  Last week, Dale appeared on God and Culture with Paul Edwards to discuss the same case. …

Leonard Link: Two courts in recent weeks have addressed the question whether states were violating the Constitution by requiring transparency regarding the identity of donors to ballot initiative campaigns . . . The 9th Circuit ruling concerning the Montana church …

. . . New Hampshire’s state motto is ‘Live Free or Die.’ But is New Hampshire the most free place to live in the United States? Apparently it is, according to a new study, Freedom in the 50 States: An Index of Personal and Economic Freedom . . .

The Legislature will not take action in response to a December ruling that terminally ill patients have a constitutional right to pursue life-ending treatment from physicians in Montana.

This is the first Personhood Amendment in U.S. history to pass a State Senate.

The Canyon Ferry Road Baptist Church of East Helena isn’t obliged to make campaign finance disclosures, a federal appeals court ruled Wednesday, because its support for the Montana Marriage Protection Amendment — use of some printer ink and a foyer table — was “extremely minimal.”

Oklahoma’s House of Representatives is the first legislative body to pass a state sovereignty resolution this year under the terms of the Tenth Amendment.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit reversed a ruling Wednesday which had upheld as constitutional a Montana commissioner’s determination that a church violated state law by not registering as an “incidental political committee.”

LifeNews: “The Montana state Senate on Tuesday signed off on legislation that would revive the state’s parental notification law on abortion. Montana law requires parents to be notified before a minor has an abortion but a 1999 State District Court …

. . . after a same-sex relationship . . . fell apart in 2006, a district judge awarded property and even child custody rights to Kulstad, even though Maniaci was the sole owner of the couple’s residence and sole legal parent of two adopted children . . .

LifeNews: “The Montana Senate on Thursday approved legislation that would limit the misuse of the privacy clause in the state constitution to allow for unlimited abortions. Montana is one of a handful of states where the state Supreme Court has …

KXMC.com: “The judge who ruled that physician-assisted suicide is legal in Montana has ordered the state to pay attorneys’ fees to the plaintiffs’ lawyers in an amount yet to be determined.”

LifeNews: “With Washington state voters deciding to become the second state to legalize assisted suicide and courts in Montana poised to make it the third, the pro-euthanasia movement is working with legislators in Hawaii and New Hampshire to try to …

With Washington state voters deciding to become the second state to legalize assisted suicide and courts in Montana poised to make it the third, the pro-euthanasia movement is working with legislators in Hawaii and New Hampshire to try to make them states four and five to allow the grisly practice.

LifeNews.com: “Montana officially became the third state to allow assisted suicide as a state judge ruled again on the issue. Helena District Judge Dorothy McCarter handed down her ruling allowing the practice in December and, this week, ruled again by …

LifeNews.com reports: The Catholic bishop of Helena, Montana has written a new column in which he says he will pledge to fight the court decision a state judge issued making the state the third to legalize assisted suicide. Bishop George …

LifeNews.com reports: “A leading attorney and author who is one of the top bioethicists in the U.S. says he’s very disappointed that the Montana Medical Association has said it will take no position on assisted suicide. The MMA is refusing …

Judicial activism lives. Last Friday a state trial judge in Montana imposed assisted suicide on the entire state against the will of the people.

Americans United for Life has issued this press release that concludes: Denise Burke, AUL Vice President of Legal Affairs, stated, “In siding with suicide advocates in this case, the trial court has opened the gates for suicide-on-demand in the state …

“The ruling issued late Friday by state District Court Judge Dorothy McCarter makes Montana the third state in which doctor-assisted suicide is legal . . .”

Religion Clause Blog reports: Yesterday’s Great Falls (MT) Tribune reports on last month’s filing of a petition for certiorari to the U.S. Supreme Court in United States v. Friday, a case in which the 10th Circuit rejected a challenge under …

Montanasnewsstation.com reports: The Billings City Council passed a new ordinance on Monday night that will regulate sexually oriented businesses in the Magic City. The decision comes just days after a downtown strip club closed its doors and the council voted …

KULR 8 reports: “Billings City Council members vote to further ban adult businesses from certain areas of the city, and owners of some of those businesses are outraged.”

The Washington Blade reports: “The Lewis and Clark Public Library in Helena has voted to keep on the shelves a book about gay sex. The book is titled ‘The Joy of Gay Sex.’ Board chairwoman Carole Byrnes acknowledges the book includes …

The HRC Backstory Blog reports on efforts by proponents of homosexuality to pass a “nondiscrimination bill” in Montana.

The judge ruled that the former same-sex partner of Dr. Barbara Maniaci is entitled to parental rights simply because the two women lived together for a period of time.

Maniaci’s attorneys . . . argue that Kulstad has no legal or biological ties to the children and say the judge ruled in her favor simply because “the two women lived together for a period of time.”

CBN reports: On Monday, District Judge Ed McLean recognized Montana resident Michele Kulstad as a legal parent to an 8-year-old boy and 5-year-old girl that her previous partner had adopted during their relationship. Kulstad was granted joint custody of the …

The AP reports:  ”A judge ruled in favor of a woman who sought parental rights to a boy and girl adopted by her former same-sex partner, a decision described as a first for Montana.” ADF attorney Austin R. Nimocks is mentioned …

The AP reports: Canyon Ferry Road Baptist Church is appealing a 2006 decision by U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy of Missoula, who ruled against the church and its lawsuit challenging a decision by the state commissioner of political practices. The …

ADF attorneys are appealing a 2006 court decision holding the church in violation of a Montana campaign finance law because it did not report to the state when speaking on the social issue of Montana’s marriage amendment.

LifeNews.com reports: Girls Inc. is back in the news over abortion and now the group for young women is teaming up with Planned Parenthood. The organization, which has come under fire for adopting a pro-abortion position, is conducting workshops in …

The Missoulian reports: Opponents of an proposed constitutional amendment to ban abortion by defining a fertilized human egg as a “person” announced Tuesday the measure has failed to gain enough support to qualify for the November ballot. Constitutional Initiative 100 …

MontanaNewsStation.com reports: “Monday night, the city council approved an interim zoning change. The original goal was to keep the Aphrodite’s Inferno Club from opening but the club opened last night . . . “

The Billings Gazette reports: Aphrodite’s Inferno, a new downtown Billings adult entertainment club, opened for business Sunday night to a crowd of about 50 invited guests . . . A loophole in zoning regulations allows nude dance clubs downtown so …

Undermining the rights of fit parents harms families and children,” said Nimocks, senior legal counsel for the Alliance Defense Fund, a national conservative legal agency. “A natural parent who has never been declared unfit as a parent has the right to prevent access to her children by legal strangers.” . . .

Alliance Defense Fund Senior Legal Counsel Austin R. Nimocks will argue before the Missoula County Fourth Judicial District Court on behalf of a mother who is asking the court to reject visitation and parental rights demanded by a woman not biologically or legally related to her children.

Colorado and Montana are the two states where “personhood” measures could make the 2008 ballot and create a legal foundation to outlaw abortion.

“It breaks my heart” that women from the Bozeman area must travel to Billings, Missoula, Helena or Kalispell to end unwanted pregnancies, Wicklund told the Bozeman Daily Chronicle in a story Thursday.