The door to the old Supreme Court Chamber at the Montana Capitol. (Micah Drew/Daily Montanan)
The Senate Judiciary Committee rejected the idea of appointing the Clerk of the Montana Supreme Court as a nonpartisan position, but during the same meeting supported changing another position, the court’s chief administrator, to guard against political influence.
The committee held hearings and took executive action on both bills at its Feb. 25 meeting, as the Legislature heads toward the transmittal deadline to send legislation to the opposite chamber.
Senate Bill 342, introduced by Sen. John Fuller, R-Kalispell, would alter how the Supreme Court administrator is appointed.
Fuller said SB 342 would improve accountability and transparency in the court system by having the Chief Justice appoint the court administrator, as opposed to the entire seven-justice bench.
Fuller cited a lawsuit stemming from the 2021 session that involved then-court administrator Beth McLaughlin and a legislative subpoena.
“That court administrator had some important political influence and incidents, and this is designed to eliminate that,” Fuller said.
Greenwood testified in favor of the legislation, noting that a similar bill was introduced last session that would move appointment authority from the justices to the Clerk, but that he found this to be a better alternative by keeping control of the administrator within the court.
He added that because a single justice is up for election every eight years, having the administrator answer to the Chief Justice makes it more feasible for changes to be made in the position if necessary.
Fuller said that he understood the Chief Justice, as the “big kahuna of the Supreme Court,” takes care of many of the administrative duties of the court, and it made sense to group the positions together.
The GOP-led judiciary committee passed the bill along party lines with all Democrats in opposition.
The committee also took executive action on Senate Bill 332, tabling the bill brought by Sen. Willis Curdy, D-Missoula, which proposed changing the role of Clerk of the Supreme Court into an appointed position, rather than its current partisan elected position.
The Clerk of the Supreme Court controls the court’s dockets and filings, manages the appellate process, is the custodian of all official court records for the public, issues subpoenas, writs and certificates, and is responsible for licensing the state’s attorneys.
While the position has been an elected position for decades, Curdy told the judiciary committee, given the increasingly political rhetoric around the judicial system, he believes a better model would be to remove the partisanship of the position.
“This bill dovetails with the Chief Justice’s point of view that all those working within the court should reflect that politics has no place within the functioning of the court,” Curdy said, referencing Chief Justice Cory Swanson’s State of the Judiciary speech to the Legislature last week.
In his address, Swanson stated that the judiciary “should remain non-partisan, despite the almost irresistible pull of partisan spending and messaging in these highly contested campaigns.”
However, Swanson made no mention of specific roles within the judiciary, which Bowen Greenwood, current Clerk of the Supreme Court, mentioned while testifying in opposition to the bill.
Greenwood, a Republican, said that in his more than six years serving in the role, he hasn’t had a single complaint about a filing or document being treated differently because of the partisanship, economic status, or physical appearance of a filer.
“So nothing’s wrong. Why would we want to fix it if nothing’s wrong?” Greenwood said.
In addition, Greenwood said that having Montanans elect the clerk gave a measure of accountability over the Supreme Court — whereas if the position answered to the justices, it would remove some oversight.
“The clerk’s office is responsible for making sure that the rules have been followed before a document goes to the Montana Supreme Court. But sometimes in the past, the Montana Supreme Court has chosen to operate outside its own rules,” Greenwood said. “When that happens, the office responsible for following those rules really matters.”
“I work for the people in Montana, not for the court,” Greenwood added.
Patrick Yawakie, representing the Blackfeet Tribe, the Fort Belknap Indian Community and the Chippewa Cree Tribe of Rocky Boy, was the lone proponent for the legislation, arguing that keeping the court as nonpartisan as possible was the best path forward.
He pointed to statements made by Greenwood during his 2024 campaign, including that “Republicans must observe every advantage we can get… I’m the only Republican in the court. We cannot risk losing gains we’ve made,” to show that the position had become overtly politicized.
The committee took immediate executive action on the bill, voting to table it in committee in a 5-3 party line vote.