Constitutional Coup? The Case that Promulgated a New Constitution for Montana
Author | Robert G. Natelson |
Position | Professor of Law (ret.), The University of Montana; Senior Fellow in Constitutional Jurisprudence, the Independence Institute, Denver, Colorado; Senior Fellow in Constitutional Jurisprudence, the Montana Policy Institute |
Pages | 317-364 |
ABSTRACT
This Article examines one of the most important state court cases ever decided. In
Montana ex rel. Cashmore v. Anderson, the Montana Supreme Court exercised its
original jurisdiction to order, by a 3-2 margin, that the state’s original constitution
be replaced with one the people apparently had failed to ratify. In doing so, the court
yielded to interest groups that favored replacing the original state constitution with
caused the swing justice to vote for the new constitution, but even if that did not
occur, the case represents a striking example of the failure of the rule of law. The
Article also proposes reforms that may reduce the chances of a recurrence.
KEYWORDS
Constitutional Law, State Constitutional Law, Montana Supreme Court, Montana
Constitution; Cashmore v. Anderson
© 2018 Robert G. Natelson, published by Sciendo.
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 License.
7 Br. J. Am. Leg. Studies (2018)
318
State of Montana ex rel. Cashmore v. Anderson.
Frequently cited sources
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available at
Eck, Constitution]
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Convention 1972: Constitutional Myths Come True
Males]
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cert. denied
The Constitution: Never Before an Issue Like This
Males, supra
Opinion
id.
319
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