The Montana Supreme Court rejected state Attorney General Austin Knudsen’s assessment that a proposed ballot initiative regarding a right to abortion was legally insufficient, putting it one step closer to going before voters.
In a 6-1 decision on Monday, the justices of the court ruled that Knudsen “erred” in his decision, which claimed the proposed ballot initiative, denoted as CI-14 by the state Secretary of State, violated the state constitution, regarding parts not allowing a unified vote on multiple changes to the state constitution, and would confuse voters.
“CI-14 effects a single change to the Montana Constitution on a single subject: the right to make decisions about one’s own pregnancy, including the right to abortion,” the justices said in the majority opinion. “If CI-14 is placed on the ballot, voters may ultimately agree or disagree with the proposed change that CI-14 offers, but they will be able to understand what they are being asked to vote upon because CI-14 does not effect two or more changes that are not substantive and closely related.”
Any questions that may come up, if the measure is adopted, regarding the new additions to the state constitution would not be unlike questions about other parts of the state’s founding document and amendments, according to the state Supreme Court.
The court also ruled that Knudsen’s office has five days from the decision to “prepare a ballot statement consistent with the applicable statutory requirements and forward the statement to the Montana Secretary of State.”
The proposed ballot measure “affirms the right to make and carry out decisions about one’s own pregnancy, including the right to abortion, in the Montana Constitution” and would ban restricting abortion before “fetal viability,” except in instances to protect the pregnant mother’s “life or health.” Knudsen rejected it in January, but it is now back on track to get to the ballot.
Emilee Cantrell, a spokeswoman for the Montana attorney general’s office, said the office “will comply with the order,” while also saying the dissent by Justice Jim Rice, in which he agreed with Knudsen’s findings that the proposed ballot issue was “legally insufficient.”
“The dissent had it right in agreeing with the Attorney General that the proposal violates the Montana Constitution’s prohibition on logrolling multiple amendments in a single ballot issue,” Cantrell said in a statement to the Washington Examiner. “The dissent also correctly stated that CI-14 will lead to unnecessary voter confusion and should have been withheld, as it’s internally contradictory.”
The proposed ballot issue 14 has to finalize the language of the ballot statement, pass through legislative review, and garner the necessary signatures by June 21 to be placed on the ballot in November.
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If the ballot issue appears before voters in November, it could be a boost to Sen. Jon Tester (D-MT), who is expected to face a difficult challenge in the largely Republican state. Tester is likely to face Republican Tim Sheehy in the general election, a race characterized as a “toss-up” by the Cook Political Report.
Tester is one of the most vulnerable Democrats up for election in November, but when abortion has been on the ballot, it has largely been a winning topic for Democrats since the 2022 Supreme Court decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization.