Keep politics out of our courts and off our public lands

By: Kayje Booker

October, 5 2026

Published in the Lewistown News-Argus

In an era of divisive politics, one thing Montanans agree on is the importance of our access to public lands and waters. These are more than values we hold: they are constitutional rights Montanans hold dear.

When those rights are challenged, those cases end up in our courts. We rely on Montana’s judges and justices to uphold the law fairly and impartially, without political bias. That’s why Wild Montana Action Fund has endorsed CI-132, a constitutional initiative that will keep our judicial elections nonpartisan.

Montanans deserve that guarantee. In 2025 state lawmakers introduced multiple bills seeking to make judicial elections partisan. It ultimately passed a new law letting political parties make donations of nearly $90,000 to judicial candidates. That threatens to overturn Montana’s 90-year tradition of nonpartisan judicial elections.

Montanans find themselves in front of courts for many reasons, including land use and property disputes. If a logger thinks his right to cut timber on public lands is being curtailed, then he should be able to make his argument in front of an independent judge. If a horseman thinks his right to ride a backcountry trail has been violated, then he should be able to make his case in front of a judge who wasn’t elected to represent one political party or the other. If a hunter thinks her right to access public lands has been infringed, then she should be able to walk into a courtroom knowing that political parties won’t influence the judge’s decision on what’s right or wrong. If a family wants to fish in a river together and they find a new fence blocking public stream access, they should feel confident our judges and justices will follow the constitution, not partisanship or special interests.

These are real issues with real consequences. Montana’s Stream Access Law comes directly from a 1984 case in which the nonpartisan Montana Supreme Court ruled that the Constitution guarantees the public's right to use surface waters for recreation. Would that case have turned out the same way if the justices had owed their seats to a political party that put its thumb on the scale?

We are fortunate that our right to access public lands and waters is enshrined in our state constitution, but we need impartial judges and justices to defend those rights when they are challenged. In an era when some people want to sell off Montana’s public lands to the highest bidder, our courts are our backstop against threats to public access.

Montanans deserve to have their cases decided by independent judges and justices, based on the law and the facts of each case. Politics should be kept out of the courtroom. Voting yes on CI-132 ensures our judges are elected based on their records and qualifications and not politics and keeps undue influence out of our courts and away from our public lands.

Like our public lands and waters, Montana’s courts have always been nonpartisan. Let’s keep it that way by voting yes on CI-132.

Kayje Booker is the deputy director for Wild Montana Action Fund.