On the Freedom Caucus’ effort to politicize Montana’s courts

By Rep. John Fitzpatrick

R-HD 76

While the topic never generated as much press as the property tax issue, a hotly contested matter during the 2025 Legislature was the Freedom Caucus’ effort to politicize Montana’s Court System. The Freedom Caucus which also operates under the name of “The Constitutional North Star of the Treasure State” is a rump group of extremist Republican legislators.

Unhappy with several Supreme Court decisions and the refusal of the Court to honor legislative subpoenas when the legislature sought information regarding judicial conduct, the 2023 Senate formed a Select Committee on Judicial Oversight and Reform. The Democrats boycotted the Committee and the Freedom Caucus members had a clear majority to move their agenda forward. During the 2025 Legislature, 21 bills drafted by the Select Committee were introduced. 

Most of these bills were non-sensical, a couple invaded the privacy of private organizations, and others were ripe for constitutional challenges. The Freedom Caucus so called “reform” quickly floundered. Only two Select Committee bills passed for a 9.5% success rate. 

The core of the alleged Judicial Reform Bills were two that aimed to makes Montana’s Judicial Elections partisan. SB 42 wanted the state’s District Court and Supreme Court Judges to declare their political party while HB 733 limited the partisanship to the Supreme Court.

I voted against both bills. American justice is supposed to be blind to a person’s race, creed, color, national origin, and political values. I am not so naïve to believe that is always the case but a goal of unbiased, fair judicial decisions based on the facts and law is what our Judicial System should aspire to. No one should have to walk into a Montana courtroom and wonder if they are going to get a fair shake because the judge is from the opposite political party.

Likewise, no one should be able to obtain a “get-out-of-jail-free-card” because they hail from the same political party as the judge.

If the Freedom Caucus is unhappy with the quality of our court’s decisions, the right thing to do is recruit and help elect candidates who share their values.

Did they do that? No! Instead, they concocted a plan to turn the state’s court system into another political venue, potentially biasing justice to the detriment of Montanans who have a right to expect fairness in the court room.

I bring this to your attention because, for the past several months, the Freedom Caucus has been distributing inaccurate information about various Legislator’s voting records and indicting them for not supporting the Freedom Caucus’ malignant agenda with our courts. Not being an attorney, I have a layman’s understanding of the rules of judicial procedure and conduct but, as it turned out on the 23 votes I made on the so called “Judicial Reform” bills, my voting record matched that of Rep. Bill Mercer 83 percent of the time. Rep. Mercer is strongly conservative, a distinguished former federal prosecutor, and was recently nominated by President Trump to serve as Montana’s next federal judge.