Changing Political Leadership Leads to Greater Freedom for Montanans
In May 2020, the Gallatin County Health Board, sanctioned by the Bozeman City Commission and Gallatin County Commission, began discussions of mandatory masking in Gallatin County after enforcing a mandatory shut down of “non-essential” businesses in the county.
In June 2020, discussions continued, culminating in a public meeting of the Health Board on July 12, 2020, wherein the health board was ill-prepared for the number of unmasked individuals that showed up, and canceled the meeting on the spot. The following week, July 17, 2020, Governor Steve Bullock announced the state-wide Mask Mandate.
In response, Citizens of Montana organized and decided to fight back. Citizens in the Missoula area organized a group called Montana Title 50, with the intention of bringing a lawsuit against the Governor. Simultaneously, Stand Up Montana was in communication with the same attorney, Quentin Rhoades of Rhoades, Siefkert, and Erickson.
On December 14, 2020, Stand UP MT et al filed the lawsuit against Governor Steve Bullock and the Montana DPHHS.
Then, on December 21, 2020, he filed a Motion for Preliminary Injunctive Relief and a (rather long) Brief in support of that motion. Essentially, we asked that the governor and DPHHS cease their unconstitutional and harmful directives related to the covid epidemic.
When Governor Greg Gianforte took office in January 2021, the suit became Stand Up MT et al vs. Governor Greg Gianforte and the MT DPHHS.
On June 30, 2021, Governor Gianforte, by executive order, lifted Montana’s state of emergency issued by former Governor Bullock. Thanks to this and a number of bills passed and signed into law in 2021, we filed a motion to dismiss this case.
The 2021 Montana Legislative Session saw great success. With your help, and the help of many other groups and organizations, legislators were able to pass a number of freedom-protecting bills and get them to Governor Gianforte’s desk for signature.
Some of the legislation that passed covered many of the issues that our original case focused on. In light of this, Governor Gianforte’s legal team notified us they would be filing a Motion to Dismiss our case as moot. After much discussion with our team, we concluded that Judge Menehan would most likely dismiss the case as moot if the Governor’s lawyers were to file such a motion. So, we decided to drop the case against the Governor and DPHHS and focus on our case in Missoula.
Two such bills that impacted our suit are House Bill (HB) 230 and House Bill (HB) 257. HB 230 limits the duration of an emergency declaration issued by the Governor in response to an event other than an earthquake, flood, or wildfire to 45 days, unless extension of the declaration is approved by the legislature. All current emergency executive orders have either been rescinded or are set to automatically expire on July 1, 2021. HB 230 prevents the issuance of any future emergency declaration similar to that issued by Governor Bullock.
HB 257 was successful in removing the ability of local governments and health authorities to issue ordinances or resolutions that would deny customers access to a business’s goods or services. It also removes the ability to require a business to do so.
There are some limitations in HB 257, which we hope our Missoula case will address. For example, the bill does not address the overarching principle that a health officer cannot and should not bring any action, generally, against the uninfected or healthy. It also lacks guidelines for due process and consideration of special cases for those accused of coming under the authority of the health officer. Nevertheless, we consider the bill a win.
