1. What do you get when you mix miners, mountains, and cowboys? Montana of course! Today on #50Weeks50Constitutions we’ll look at a state boasting one of the most modern constitutions, containing some of the most local flair.
2. When (most of) Montana came into the US as a massive chunk of the Louisiana Purchase, Lewis & Clark took quite a long time navigating across it, including its unexpected seemingly endless mountains. As settlement slowly expanded territorial lines were drawn & redrawn for years 
3. Congress finally created the Montana Territory in 1864. Although there was a territorial government & courts, its non-native population was mostly ungoverned gold prospectors, ranchers, & vagabonds. Stepping into the void came an informal constitutional order.
4. Historians & theorists love this period of state history, from the stockmen’s associations of ranchers drawing land boundaries, to miner camp committees, to vigilantes who notoriously often emerged. It’s a fascinating case study in spontaneous order.
amazon.com/Not-So-Wild-We…
amazon.com/Not-So-Wild-We…
5. But it wasn’t all anarcho-capitalist fun, & the push for statehood didn’t take long. In 1866 55 delegates met in Helena to try & draft a constitution. The hammered out some language, but it wasn’t pursued beyond that. The only copy was lost.
6. Things didn’t get serious again until 1883. The state’s population had grown, & it was time to convene a convention, which delegates did in January 1884. This led to a draft constitution which the people then overwhelmingly approved in an election that year.
7. But there was a political standoff in DC over creating new states (think "new senators"), so things would have to wait. That happened in early 1889, when Congress voted to allow four new states to join the Union. Montanans jumped back into action with a new convention.
8. The resulting 1889 constitution was very similar to 1884’s. But a lot was debated at the convention. Women’s suffrage narrowly lost out, mining interests were heavily on everyone’s minds, & rural representation issues led to a compromise whereby every county got one senator.
9. One of the most idiosyncratic provisions was this, stating that no “armed body of men shall be brought” into the state (note the passive voice). Still in today’s constitution, this was aimed at mining companies bringing strike breakers into the state.
10. The people ratified the draft by a heavy margin & Montana entered the Union. The constitution then was amended many times over the years, but it wasn’t until the 1960s & “one person one vote” that a push for a full revision, fixing that & other issues, came about.
11. 100 delegates met in December 1971 to prepare a convention that lasted until March. It included 19 women, 24 lawyers, & 20 farmers & ranchers. It also had few career politicians, which fostered a somewhat idealistic climate, but one less beholden to special interests.
12. The new document shared a lot of language with the former version, but with many new provisions. That began with its soaring preamble.
13. The new Declaration of Rights added “a right to a clean and healthful environment” as well as an unique right of “pursuing life’s basic necessities”. These both added onto an existing clause descended from George Mason’s 1776 Virginia Declaration.
14. There also was a “Right to Know” clause, basically a right to open government. One state supreme court justice took this so seriously he thought their court deliberations should be open to the public! (A majority of the court did not agree.)
15. The convention paired back the various state boards that had split the executive branch into many different pieces. It also made amending the constitution a bit easier than it had been.
16. All 100 delegates signed the draft and sent it off to the voters. But it was a near thing, as it then passed by only three thousand votes, and narrowly survived a court challenge.
17. All these years later I can say (having clerked at its Supreme Court) that Montanans of various political persuasions are proud of its constitution. Despite its faults it offers a bit to all in its protection of individual rights and balance of power.
18. Sources:
Elison & Snyder, The Montana State Constitution (2011)
scholarship.law.umt.edu/cgi/viewconten…
missoulacurrent.com/opinion/2018/0…
Elison & Snyder, The Montana State Constitution (2011)
scholarship.law.umt.edu/cgi/viewconten…
missoulacurrent.com/opinion/2018/0…
