Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen listens during a hearing on ethics violations in front of the Commission on Practice on Oct. 9, 2024. (Photo by Blair Miller, Daily Montanan)
Attorneys for Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen on Thursday submitted a motion to disqualify Montana Supreme Court Justice Ingrid Gustafson in a disciplinary hearing to decide whether the state’s top lawyer should be suspended from practice for 90 days for 41 ethical violations.
Also on Thursday, Gustafson announced she would withdraw from the case.
The brief, submitted by Knudsen’s attorneys, said that four justices who sat on the cases involving a legislative subpoena for emails from the judicial branch had already recused themselves, but Gustafson had not. The brief said that even if Gustafson believed she was impartial, the appearance alone would cause problems.
Christian B. Corrigan, Solicitor General for the State of Montana, said that since the ethical violations involved the Montana Supreme Court, it was improper for Gustafson to serve on the case since she was part of the group targeted by Knudsen’s comments.
“As the recipient and reader of the statements, Justice Gustafson necessarily has personal knowledge and subjective views about the tone and the reception of these statements. Thus, this creates a scenario where she could apply her own subjective views of the disputed facts rather than the objective test that the law requires,” according to the brief Corrigan filed on behalf of his boss, Knudsen. “It’s no answer that Justice Gustafson might believe herself capable of setting aside her subjective views. Due process alone would bar her.”
With Gustafson’s recusal, only the court’s two new members, Chief Justice Cory Swanson and associate Justice Katherine Bidegaray, remain to hear the case.
According to the operating rules of the court, “the chief justice or acting chief justice “shall designate a replacement.”