WASHINGTON, DC—Today, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to review the Montana Supreme Court’s decision that two Montana laws that disenfranchise Native American voters are unconstitutional. The Blackfeet Nation, the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes of the Flathead Reservation, the Fort Belknap Indian Community, the Northern Cheyenne Tribe, Western Native Voice, and Montana Native Voice have repeatedly won their challenges to two Montana laws that suppressed the Native vote in Montana by restricting access.
The Montana Legislature passed HB 176 to eliminate Election Day registration, which Native American voters disproportionately rely on to cast votes in Montana. Legislators passed HB 530 to restrict third-party ballot assistance, a service that aids Native voters living on reservations who may have to travel hours to the nearest polling location due to systemic inequities. The lower courts ruled, and the Montana Supreme Court affirmed, that the laws violate provisions of the Montana Constitution, including the right to vote, equal protection, free speech, and due process.
This is the second time that Montana Legislators passed restrictions on ballot collection that the courts determined discriminated against Native voters.
"Year after year, Montana has tried to pass laws that make it harder for Native Americans to vote, and year after year Native voters have stood up to stop this abuse. We are gratified that the Supreme Court rejected this latest attempt by Montana to evade the simple truth: laws that disproportionately disenfranchise Native Americans are unconstitutional," said Native American Rights Fund Staff Attorney Jacqueline De León.
"Today the U.S. Supreme Court rejected the State's latest hail-mary attempt at disenfranchising Montana voters," said Alex Rate, ACLU of Montana Legal Director. "The State should be spending taxpayer dollars promoting access to the ballot box, not engaging in legal gimmickry."
NARF, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the ACLU of Montana, and the Election Law Clinic at Harvard Law School represented the Tribal Nations and voter resource nonprofits in this successful challenge. NARF represented the Tribal Nations, while ACLU, ACLU Montana, and the Election Law Clinic represented the two nonprofit organizations that support Native voters in Montana. The Montana Thirteenth Judicial District Court for Yellowstone County consolidated WNV v. Jacobsen and Montana Democratic Party v. Jacobsen as they both challenged the two voter suppression laws.
Read the Order: https://www.supremecourt.gov/orders/courtorders/012125zor_f204.pdf
More About WNV v. Jacobsen: https://narf.org/cases/2021-montana-voter-laws/
