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The court order, issued Wednesday by Gallatin County District Court Judge Rienne McElyea, came one week after oral arguments in a legal challenge brought by the Montana Federation of Public Employees, the Montana Public Interest Research Group and multiple individuals and university faculty associations.
In addition to the transgender athlete ban enacted by House Bill 112, the plaintiffs also argued that lawmakers overextended their authority in passing two other laws affecting college campuses: House Bill 349, which prohibited campuses from limiting support for student groups based on the groups' activities or beliefs, and Senate Bill 319, which imposed new restrictions on campus political activity.
McElyea struck down all three laws, writing that each "attempts to directly control internal university affairs and inject legislative policy judgments into [Montana University System] administration, contrary to the letter and intent of the Montana Constitution."
The Montana Supreme Court came to a similar conclusion in June when it found that regulation of firearms on Montana campuses falls squarely within the authority of the Board of Regents. That decision upheld an earlier order in Lewis and Clark County District Court in favor of the regents, who challenged the Legislature's passage of more relaxed campus gun provisions in House Bill 102.
In response to the latest ruling on campus issues, Kyle Schmauch, spokesperson for the Legislature's Republican leadership, invoked a warning issued this summer by HB 102 sponsor Rep. Seth Berglee, R-Joliet, that the Supreme Court's ruling on his bill introduced a "slippery slope."
"Now we're starting to see that play out," Schmauch wrote in an emailed statement. "The courts seem to be embracing the constitutionally dubious theory that unelected bureaucrats have complete power over every aspect of Montana's university system, including matters totally independent of academic freedom. Montanans should understand that the courts are striking down the will of their elected representatives while handing more power to unelected bureaucrats."
The same assessment was expressed by the Montana Department of Justice, with press secretary Emilee Cantrell saying via email that Attorney General Austin Knudsen's office is reviewing McElyea's order to "determine the next steps."
"The courts have once again taken authority from Montanans — exercised through their elected legislators — over the campuses their tax dollars fund and given more power to unelected campus administrators," Cantrell wrote. "Decisions like this from state district courts continue to remind Montanans of the fact that most district court judges are little more than Democrat operatives in black robes."
Plaintiffs in the Gallatin County case, meanwhile, trumpeted the ruling, with Montana Federation of Public Employees President Amanda Curtis calling it "a win for all Montanans" and cautioning the Legislature that it "needs to stay in its lane."
"MFPE has a long history defending constitutional rights for all Montanans," Curtis said in a statement. "I'm not surprised the court found that the Legislature cannot infringe on the Board of Regents' constitutional authority to govern Montana's campuses."
Reader Comments
There is not a day that goes by that I don't recite some of Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King's words from his speeches to myself to remind me, in a positive way, why I am so thankful to be a fiercely patriotic American today and everyday.
It sickens us and deeply saddens us to see groups like this come along and get an easy ride off the dead bodies of our ancestors - while they themselves still practice rampant racism in the "alphabet" community.
The sickest part being this bottom line - the only reason we, as Americans, are having to contend with this is because it is something that white men want - please do not misinterpret what I am stating here, I am not one of those nutcases who foolishly believes that all white persons in America are racists. No one was jumping to open women's restrooms to men when it was just Black and brown drag queens and transsexuals.
And as mentioned above, many of them haven't even had surgery so they still have all of their male reproductive organs - how am I supposed to explain this to my little girls??
Now that it's some of the same white men who say that we better LOVE their annual parades, the narrative has changed and now all of us are supposed to be ok with our little girls and teenage girls sharing bathrooms and locker rooms with predominantly white men who have now decided that their civil rights extend into places that women literally fought for centuries to have for themselves.
But what do I know? I'm just another violent extremist semi-facist no-longer-Black-white-supremacist!