Fifteen current and former Montana Supreme Court Justices are urging U.S. Senators Jon Tester and Steve Daines to fight to retain funding for two programs they call “critical partners in ensuring that the Montana justice system meets the Constitution’s command to ‘establish Justice…and secure the Blessings of Liberty’ to all Montanans.” Funding for the programs is on the chopping block due to budget proposals of the Trump administration.
The Montana Legal Services Association provides civil legal aid to “protect domestic violence victims and obtain support for their children; secure housing for veterans; relieve seniors from consumer scams; and obtain access to justice in rural Montana where few, if any, other legal services are available,” said the justices in an April 1 letter to the senators. The other program, funded through the Corporation for National and Community Service, has allowed AmeriCorps volunteers to help with the Montana Court Help Program, said the justices. That assists Montanans with understanding and navigating the court system, they told the senators.
“Together, these programs help meet a vital need in a Montana court system that is simply overwhelmed with record-setting caseloads, self-represented litigants, and alarming increases in time-intensive cases involving abused and neglected children,” the justices wrote. They called the programs “an incredibly effective use of a small amount of federal dollars that deliver results to Montana every day.” Signing the letter were all seven of the current justices plus eight justices who served on the Supreme Court between 1978 sand 2016.
