HELENA — Supreme court justices play a vital role in our democracy, handling appeals from lower court cases.
Proposed legislation could change how these positions are selected.
Republican representative Brad Barker of Luther proposed House Bill 506, a constitutional amendment that would revise how Supreme Court justices are selected.
"Right now, I think we would all acknowledge that races are highly partisan despite that most Montanans that I talk to want to have nonpartisan and impartial justices," said Barker.
Supreme Court justices are currently nonpartisan and elected by voters, although there has been increasing money spent by partisan groups backing individual candidates.
The governor appoints vacancies outside of an election.
The bill could change that by proposing to remove the election process by having a committee select justice candidates to be appointed by the governor.
The nominations committee would be made up of the Senate president, the speaker of the House of Representatives, the minority leaders of each house, and two current or former attorneys chosen by the members of the committee.
The committee would have 60 days to agree on three to five potential justices that would be provided to the governor to pick from.
Opponents of the bill say it could lead to the politicization of the judicial system.
Friends of the Third representative Anne Sherwood said, "This can result in a court that reflects the political ideologies of the current governor rather than the people."
If the committee cannot decide on the names, the governor would appoint justices from a pool of ten individuals pulled from a lottery system.
"I anticipate because of the partisanship it would create a very high bar in a vetting process," said Barker.
Sherwood said, "When judges are elected directly by the people, they are directly answerable to the voters."
Since the bill is a constitutional amendment, it would need to be passed by a two-thirds majority from the House and Senate.
Then, the amendment would go to voters for the final decision.
