“We the People of Montana: The Case for a Montana Constitutional Convention” is the title of Rob Natelson’s new issue paper, published by the Mountain States Policy Center.
The paper rejects claims that the current 1972 constitution is entirely defective—listing specific strong points—but concludes that it’s time for a revision. Among the reasons:
- The current constitution is plagued by poor draftsmanship, with clauses that are vague and sometimes contradictory;
- it contains provisions that contradict current law or are flatly illegal;
- it imposes vague authoritarian mandates on individual citizens, mandates subject to abuse;
- it contains inadequate safeguards on government power and lacks certain critical financial safeguards;
- Montana Supreme Court interpretations have distorted many of its provisions and imposed policies on Montanans that no one ever voted for; and
- despite a 3-2 state supreme court decision holding that the constitution was ratified, there is serious doubt that it ever was—and that more voters actually may have opposed the constitution than voted in favor of it.
You can read the paper here.
Note: The current draft contains a few minor typographical errors, of which the author has notified the publisher.