LTE: Keep politics out of the courtroom

After representing clients in Montana courts for over 50 years, I firmly believe judges and justices should be elected on the basis of their record and qualifications, not politics. We need judges qualified by experience, effectiveness and competence in court and who share our values of honesty, integrity, judgment and fairness.

Justice requires that we continue to keep politics out of the courtroom. Compare our nonpartisan judges to the partisan attorney general position. The attorney general is a key figure in the Montana judicial system who took an oath to represent Montana and its citizens. However, winning an attorney general election depends on political party support. There are now national associations of Republican and Democratic attorney generals whose members act together in doing such things as filing politically motivated lawsuits, and parroting party talking points all in support of the party platform. They soon serve their party’s platform which assures them of the campaign support and money to win office and stay there.

If we fall into partisan judicial races, imagine future associations of Republican or Democratic judges! We cannot have judges pressured to conform to a political party platform. There is no Republican or Democrat way to decide criminal cases, business disputes, family law cases, or probate disputes. For good historical reasons, we have nonpartisan judicial races. Keep our judges independent!

Vote “Yes” on CI-132 which will preserve the nonpartisan and independent status of Montana’s judges and justices.

Greg Munro,

Missoula

Originally published in The Missoluian on 10/17/2026