Montana’s Corporate Election Expenditure Ban Upheld By Its Supreme Court

The Supreme Court’s 2010 Citizens United decision appeared to foreclose the possibility of states banning independent election expenditures by corporations and unions. Montana, however, opted to defend its ban on corporate election spending in court, and the state’s Supreme Court, reversing a lower court decision, ruled that the ban was constitutional.

The court held that Montana, even in light of Citizens United, demonstrated a compelling interest in banning corporate election expenditures. It pointed to the state’s unique history with corporate spending, where extensive corruption during the “Copper King” era prompted a voter initiative in 1912 that instituted the ban. The court also noted that the state, more so than others, remains particularly susceptible to corporate spending in state elections, asking “when in the last 99 years did Montana lose the power or interest to support the statute, if it ever did.”

The case will now likely be appealed to the Supreme Court.