Montana
Montana Supreme Court to hear oral arguments in climate change case Wednesday • Daily Montanan
The Montana Supreme Court will hear oral arguments next Wednesday in the state’s appeal of a district court judge’s decision in the Held vs. Montana case, setting the stage for a decision that will have broad impacts on environmental law and regulations in Montana.
Considering the arguments from both sides, and additional briefs from Republican-led states and recreation businesses like Orvis and Patagonia, the court will have to decide whether to uphold Lewis and Clark County District Court Judge Kathy Seeley’s order from last August finding the state was violating the constitutional rights of the 16 youth plaintiffs to a clean and healthful environment.
Seeley’s order struck down the so-called “limitation” to the Montana Environmental Policy Act that prohibited the state from considering greenhouse gas emissions and climate impacts from energy and mining projects.
She also enjoined a portion of another bill passed by Republican lawmakers last year that said permits approved by Montana agencies that did not include a greenhouse gas emissions evaluation could not be vacated or voided unless Congress voted to start regulating carbon dioxide as a pollutant under the federal Clean Air Act.
Attorneys representing the state, Gov. Greg Gianforte, and three state agencies will get 40 minutes to make their case to the justice, while attorneys for the youth plaintiffs will have 30 minutes. The hearing will be held in the Supreme Court chambers in Helena and start at 9:30 a.m.
The Montana Environmental Information Center and other Montana environmental groups are also hosting watch parties of the oral arguments, which will be live streamed online, in Missoula, Billings and Kalispell.
What the two sides and their supporters are arguing
The youth plaintiffs in the case filed their response to the state’s appeal in March, and the case was fully briefed in April when attorneys for the state, Gianforte, and the state agencies filed their replies. About 20 separate amicus curiae, or “friend of the court” briefs have been filed in the case either in support of the youth plaintiffs or the state that the Supreme Court can also consider when deciding the case.
Lawyers for the state, governor and agencies have maintained since Seeley handed her decision down that striking down the MEPA limitation does not alleviate the plaintiffs’ injuries because Montana’s greenhouse gas emissions are a small fraction of global emissions, which all affect Montana and the global climate.
The defendants are also asking the Supreme Court to clarify that Seeley’s order does not require the state to perform emissions and climate impact analyses but simply provides the opportunity for them to do so if the Legislature decides to follow that route.
The Supreme Court received friend-of-the-court briefs in support of the state from the Republican-led chambers of the Montana Legislature, the Montana Chamber of Commerce and several local chambers, NorthWestern Energy, conservative think-tank Frontier Institute, the mining company association Treasure State Resources, 12 Republican-led states, and a Navajo Nation company that owns the Spring Creek Mine in Decker.
Most of those briefs, like those from the state, argue that the plaintiffs do not have standing in the case, that Seeley used the wrong level of scrutiny in deciding the case, utilized one-sided data from the plaintiffs’ expert witnesses that the state did not contest at trial, or that the judiciary was wrongfully stepping into the realm of the Legislature when interpreting laws that intersect with principles of the state constitution.
“The Judiciary’s constitutional authority does not allow the district court to determine how The Legislature should provide for the promise of a ‘clean and healthful environment’ under Mont. Const. Art. II and IX,” Senate President Jason Ellsworth and House Speaker Matt Regier’s attorney wrote in their brief, for instance.
The plaintiffs’ attorneys will argue that the Supreme Court should uphold Seeley’s order in full, which would permanently keep the MEPA limitation out of Montana law, as well as the portion surrounding permit reviews and when permits could be vacated.
Their attorneys say Seeley was correct when she found that the state’s actions prohibiting emissions and climate impact reviews were in direct violation of the 1972 Constitution’s intents to protect the environment in Montana for current and future generations.
They say attorneys for the state have purposefully tried to focus the case around the global impacts of climate change when Montana’s constitution directly concerns the state’s environment and impacts to it caused by the state’s consistent permitting of high-emissions energy projects.
“Accepting any of the state’s (or their amici’s) belated factual or constitutional arguments would eviscerate the purpose of MEPA, young Montanans’ rights to a clean and healthful environment today and well into the future, and the very idea of an independent judiciary that reviews government laws for constitutional compliance and defers to the District Court’s factual findings but for clear error,” the plaintiffs’ attorneys said in their March brief.
The friend-of-the-court briefs filed on the side of the plaintiffs come from a group of professional climbers, runners and mountain guides in Montana; six Montana tribes, a group of public health experts and doctors from Montana and other states, the ACLU and ACLU of Montana, a group of tribal members and conservation groups, a group of outdoor recreation companies that includes Patagonia and Orvis.
“Because the MEPA Limitation allows Montana to avoid its constitutional responsibility to protect a clean and healthy environment, and because that derogation of constitutional duty is already having profound negative impacts on the outdoor industry in Montana, this court should uphold the district court’s order and strike down the MEPA limitation,” the brief from the outdoor recreation companies said.
There are also friend-of-the-court briefs the court can consider from six retired Montana Supreme Court justices who make arguments in support of the judiciary’s role in determining what laws are constitutional or not, as well as from the Montana Trial Lawyers Association, which argues Seeley was correct in not allowing the state to conduct mental health examinations of the 16 plaintiffs before last summer’s trial.
The former justices in their brief ask the Supreme Court to “emphatically stress” the importance of the separation of powers in government.
“The separation of powers principle secures our republican form of government. It is well established in Montana jurisprudence. In recent years, however, repeated attempts have been made to abridge long-settled elements of the judicial power,” they wrote. “The present case involves another such attempt.”
Recent court decisions could factor into case
It’s also possible that some recent court decisions at the federal U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals and in other states could be a factor in Wednesday’s arguments. Both sides have submitted notices of supplemental authority informing the court of recent decisions that could factor into the Held case.
That includes filings from the plaintiffs about another case decided by the Supreme Court in which courts found election laws created by the Legislature were unconstitutional, and another in which the Supreme Court used similar standing requirements as Seeley did in Held and also found it could not hear new arguments first raised on the appeal.
A third notice tells the court about a similar case in Hawaii which the plaintiffs’ primary attorneys, Our Children’s Trust, led to a favorable settlement with the state in late June. Hawaii’s constitution has similar environmental protection requirements as Montana’s, and the plaintiffs said the state was violating their constitutional rights because the state Department of Transportation continued to prioritize highways over other transportation modes that emit less greenhouse gases.
The settlement will involve the state establishing a new greenhouse gas reduction plan, a roadmap to decarbonizing the state’s transportation system, and tens of million dollars to go toward building green infrastructure.
The state, meanwhile, told the court that the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals had again dismissed a similar Oregon case for a lack of standing, and there was a similar dismissal in a California case challenging the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
“Relevant to this appeal, the district court rejected the plaintiffs’ contentions that declaring the challenged EPA policies unconstitutional would redress the plaintiffs’ climate change injuries,” attorneys for the state wrote in the filing.
The court’s decision in the Held case will also factor into its decision in a case involving the fate of NorthWestern Energy’s methane-fired power plant in Laurel and whether it was properly granted permits despite the state not considering its expected emissions of 700,000 tons of carbon dioxide a year. The Supreme Court heard oral arguments in that case on May 15.
Both cases are expected to see decisions issued later this summer or fall ahead of the November election and the January start to the 2025 legislative session, where there is sure to be more legislation introduced surrounding MEPA and climate analyses depending on the outcome, lawmakers have said during the interim.
The Ole’ Mercantile is a busy place by Grass Range, Montana, standards.
The community of roughly 125 people sits along a long, lonely network of two-lane highways connecting Billings with points north along Montana’s Hi-Line.
For drivers pushing toward Lewistown, Malta or Glasgow, the store’s lights are often the first sign of anything for miles.
Of late, they may also offer a chance of identifying the person driving a truck local women say is stalking these roads.
Owner Krista Manley told Cowboy State Daily her store is outfitted with a top-of-the-line camera system that offers a 360-degree view with no blind spots. Four overlapping cameras capture her property, the Wrangler Bar and the full stretch of Highway 87 frontage running through town.
Fergus County investigators now hope that footage — and Manley’s willingness to comb through hours of it — can help identify the driver of a newer white Ford four-door pickup with dark tinted windows, no front license plate and a chrome grill guard.
The truck is at the center of the most recent reported highway stalking incident.
Lizette Lamb, a 48-year-old traveling health care worker, says she was nearly run off the road the evening of April 10.
Now a growing chorus of similar accounts from women across north-central Montana are popping up on social media.
At The Ole Merc
Travis Lamb, Lizette’s husband, took to Facebook to post about what happened to his wife on one of the loneliest stretches of highway in Montana.
Travis told Cowboy State Daily Lizette pulled into the Ole’ Merc Conoco in Grass Range between 7 and 8 p.m. to grab a drink. She later remembered a pickup was backed in alongside the cafe: a newer white Ford four-door.
“Kind of gave her the heebie-jeebies,” he said. “My wife has worked in a prison and stuff like that, so she’s used to kind of going with her gut.”
She bought a drink, got back in her Ford Bronco Sport and headed north on Highway 19 toward Glasgow.
About a mile and a half down the road, she realized the white pickup was behind her. Through the dark tint, she could make out the silhouettes of two men.
She slowed down and edged toward the shoulder to let them pass. They slowed with her. She sped up. They sped up.
By the time she reached Bohemian Corner 23 miles up the road, Travis Lamb said, his wife knew something was wrong.
There were no other vehicles in the lot, so she didn’t bother pulling in. She tried to call Travis. No service.
She tried 911. The phone beeped, displayed a red message and disconnected.
Truck Gets Aggressive
The white truck continued to shadow Lizette along Highway 191. About two miles from where the road crosses the Missouri River, coming into a construction zone, the pickup got aggressive.
Travis said the truck rode so close to the Bronco’s bumper that his wife could no longer see its windshield, only the grille.
Then it pulled out as if to pass and swerved into her, he said, in what he described as an attempted PIT maneuver — the law-enforcement technique of clipping a fleeing vehicle’s rear quarter to spin it out.
PIT stands for Precision Immobilization Technique, and this tactic is used to stop a fleeing vehicle by forcing it to turn sideways, causing the driver to lose control and stop.
“She was fortunate, kind of timed it to when they went to turn into her and hit her, she sped up,” Travis Lamb said. “And they missed.”
That’s when Lizette Lamb pulled her Springfield XDM 9mm pistol out of the center console. She didn’t point it, but she made sure they could see it.
The white pickup hit its brakes, threw a U-turn in a spray of dust and gravel, and headed back toward Grass Range.
The Video
“I thank God that it did happen to her and not somebody else, because I know my wife is more than capable of defending herself,” said Travis Lamb, an Iraq War combat veteran, who eventually reached out to Manley at the Ole Merc.
Then, when Manley reviewed the surveillance video from the Merc’s camera system, she found no sign of a white Ford truck.
“We have not found evidence of them at our store or at the three businesses that come along the highway right there,” Manley said. “That doesn’t mean it didn’t happen.
“My default is to absolutely believe women, and she (Lizette) was, she was rattled.”
Manley holds a Ph.D. in cognitive psychology and ran the research team at Procore Technologies before going into business for herself.
When reviewing the video, Manley logged the times Lizette arrived and left, and then watched the highway for an hour after.
“We’re absolutely not arguing the authenticity of the report in any way, shape or form,” said Manley. “In my previous life before I had the store, I actually was a memory and cognition researcher. I understand how stress impacts memory.”
The Echoes
Travis Lamb’s Facebook post went off like a flare.
He tallied 36 accounts of similar experiences in roughly the same swath of country stretching across prairie and badlands in one of the least populated parts of Montana.
The pattern in many of the comments was consistent enough to be unsettling: a white pickup, often a Ford, sometimes with out-of-state plates, tailgating women on isolated stretches of two-lane after dark.
One commenter described being followed by a white truck north of Grass Range three years ago around 10 p.m., tailgated with brights on at more than 80 mph until the truck peeled off in a different direction.
Another described a white Ford pickup near Harlowton trying to force her to stop, then waiting for her at a gas station. Another recalled a white pickup with North Dakota plates in the same area.
In Wyoming, one poster described two men in a white truck with Washington plates on Highway 120 between Cody and Meeteetse who tailgated her, tried to push her off the road, then cut in front and slammed on the brakes.
Other women described different vehicles — a dark Escalade, a small white car, a black double-cab — but the same script: tailgating, refusing to pass, brake-checking, dead zones with no cell service.
Easter Night
One name in that Facebook thread was Joni Hartford of Lewistown, who told Cowboy State Daily she had her own near-identical encounter on Easter evening just days before Lizette Lamb’s.
Hartford, who works in insurance, had dropped off some belongings to her son, a football player at Rocky Mountain College in Billings.
She stopped at a gas station on her way out of town “for a pop,” climbed back into her red 2014 Ford F-150 and headed north on Highway 87 around 7:30 or 8 p.m.
“I noticed it right after I left Billings,” Hartford said of the pickup behind her. “It was right behind me and I kept thinking, ‘God, this vehicle is super close.’”
About 15 miles out of town, past the racetracks, she pulled toward the white line and slowed to 60 mph on a long straightaway, hoping the truck would go around. It wouldn’t.
“He was so close behind me, I couldn’t see his taillights, but I could see his marker lamps on his mirrors, his tow mirrors,” Hartford said. “So I knew it was a Ford pickup, and I knew it was like a three-quarter or a 1-ton. It was a big pickup.”
She couldn’t make out the color in the dark. She called her husband.
“I said, ‘This pickup is tailgating me,’ and said, ‘It’s really kind of making me nervous, because if I had to stop for a deer, it would run me over. It would run me off the road,’” Hartford said.
“And he goes, ‘Well, just stop.’ And I said, ‘I am not stopping. I’m in the middle of freaking nowhere,’” she added.
She made it through Roundup with the truck still on her bumper.
North of town, climbing toward Grass Range, Hartford caught a lucky break with an Amish buggy sluggishly clapping up a blind hill and slowing traffic.
“I darted around the Amish buggy, right before the blind hill, and he couldn’t get around them, and I just gunned it, and I was going probably 90 mph just to put space between us,” Hartford said. “I never seen him again.”
Hartford carries a .380 pistol. She had it out and on the seat. She didn’t show it — between the dark and her tinted windows, she wasn’t sure the driver behind her would have seen it anyway.
When Lamb’s post crossed her Facebook feed, Hartford said the parallels stopped her cold.
“It’s the same exact situation,” she said. “I can’t say for certain it was the same person, but it sure seems like it was the same person.”
Hartford said she believes the driver is hunting for circumstance: single women, after dark, on a corridor he knows is desolate and short on cell coverage.
“They’re targeting them at gas stations,” she said. “That’s the only place they could have found me, because it’s the only place I’ve stopped.”
The Candidate
Penny Ronning, cofounder and president of the Yellowstone Human Trafficking Task Force, had a similar drive in 2022.
She remembers it as the only time in nearly a year of solo campaign travel across 41 Montana counties that she felt afraid.
Ronning, then a Democratic candidate for U.S. Congress, was driving from Billings to Havre for a campaign event.
Instead of taking the interstate, she chose the back roads — north out of Winifred on Highway 236, a route that runs about 30 miles of gravel through some of the most remote country in the state before dropping into the Missouri River Breaks, which Ronning compared to a Montana version of the Grand Canyon.
As she entered the gravel, a four-door white pickup with blacked-out windows pulled in behind her.
“That was what made it frightening,” Ronning said. “It was that I was followed.”
Ronning, who has spent years working on human trafficking policy and prevention, was careful to push back on the framing that has circulated on Facebook around the Lamb case — that the white-pickup encounters are likely abduction attempts tied to trafficking networks.
“Human trafficking is the use of force, fraud or coercion to compel a person into commercial sex acts or labor against their will,” Ronning said. “Just because someone is being followed, that doesn’t rise to the level of human trafficking.”
The most prevalent form of human trafficking in the United States, she said, is familial trafficking, one family member trafficking another.
In Montana, she said, labor trafficking is also common in construction, nail salons, illicit massage businesses, hospitality and domestic servitude in pockets of high-end real estate.
Sex trafficking almost always begins with someone the victim knows.
The Watch
Back in Grass Range, every white pickup that rolls past the four-corner blinking light is now turning heads.
Manley said her store has worked closely with the Fergus County Sheriff’s Office on past incidents, and her cameras are essentially a standing resource for investigators.
She also said the response on social media has dismayed her, commenters questioning whether these highway stalking incidents happened at all, or suggesting Grass Range itself isn’t safe.
She believes her store, and others like it in remote pockets of Montana, are informal refuges.
“We’ve all been there, whether it’s in a snowstorm or where we’re just uncomfortable driving like this where we’re just like, ‘Oh my gosh,’ you see the big lights and you’re like, there’s a beacon of safety, essentially,” Manley said.
She said that her eyes are open to potential threats along the isolated highways connecting Grass Range to the rest of the world.
“We know that it is a highway that has a reputation for, you know, trafficking, drug moving, all of those different things, and that’s why we are as diligent as we are,” said Manley. “We really care about the safety of our community, our employees, and our customers.”
Manley remains in contact with the Lambs.
“She told me, ‘I’m not going to quit looking,’” said Travis, explaining how Manley is arranging for the Lambs to review the footage themselves.
Travis figures that perhaps, “Instead of a white Ford, maybe it’s a tan Dodge.”
He added, “I’m hoping somebody’s like, ‘I know that pickup.’ That’s what I’m praying for.”
So is Lizette, who told Cowboy State Daily, she’s thankful for the response to her story. She’s also thankful she was traveling with her sidearm.
“Unfortunately, that’s the world we live in now. You know, Montana, in the middle of nowhere,” said Lizette, who encouraged anyone else with similar encounters to come forward.
“This is just a reminder that it is happening,” she said. “It is real.”
David Madison can be reached at david@cowboystatedaily.com.
The Montana Lottery offers multiple draw games for those aiming to win big.
Here’s a look at April 18, 2026, results for each game:
Winning Powerball numbers from April 18 drawing
24-25-39-46-61, Powerball: 01, Power Play: 5
Check Powerball payouts and previous drawings here.
Winning Lotto America numbers from April 18 drawing
18-21-22-32-42, Star Ball: 10, ASB: 03
Check Lotto America payouts and previous drawings here.
Winning Big Sky Bonus numbers from April 18 drawing
10-16-29-31, Bonus: 13
Check Big Sky Bonus payouts and previous drawings here.
Winning Montana Cash numbers from April 18 drawing
06-08-09-20-22
Check Montana Cash payouts and previous drawings here.
Feeling lucky? Explore the latest lottery news & results
When are the Montana Lottery drawings held?
- Powerball: 8:59 p.m. MT on Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday.
- Mega Millions: 9 p.m. MT on Tuesday and Friday.
- Lucky For Life: 8:38 p.m. MT daily.
- Lotto America: 9 p.m. MT on Monday, Wednesday and Saturday.
- Big Sky Bonus: 7:30 p.m. MT daily.
- Powerball Double Play: 8:59 p.m. MT on Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday.
- Montana Cash: 8 p.m. MT on Wednesday and Saturday.
- Millionaire for Life: 9:15 p.m. MT daily.
Missed a draw? Peek at the past week’s winning numbers.
This results page was generated automatically using information from TinBu and a template written and reviewed by a Great Falls Tribune editor. You can send feedback using this form.
Montana
Between Bozeman And Billings Is Montana’s One-Of-A-Kind Historic Mill Filled With Cheese – Islands
Montana may be well known as a top destination for nature enthusiasts and adventure seekers thanks to its outdoor activities like hiking and paddling, but there are some unique foodie gems to be found here, too. One of the best ways to experience Montana’s local food scene is with a visit to Greycliff Mill, between Bozeman and Billings. Here, you can discover a one-of-a-kind cheese attraction along with a number of other things to see on site during your visit to Big Sky Country.
Greycliff Mill is housed in a restored 1760s barn, which features a water-powered gristmill and pretty scenery like ponds framed by rock formations. You may see bison wandering the site — there are five that live here. You may also catch a glimpse of a 10-foot-tall bear, but no need to panic as it’s only a statue, carved by a chainsaw. The pretty cafe, a mix of modern and rustic decor, serves from a menu that includes coffee, milkshakes, and pastries, plus paninis like “The Cattleman” and breakfast sandwiches like the “Sheepherders Sandwich.” Book in advance for a special farm-to-table dinner in the evening — these are only offered on select dates throughout the year, and may sell out. But one thing you shouldn’t miss here is the cheese cave.
Discover Greycliff Mill’s cheese cave
Greycliff Mill has an underground cheese cave, which is a must-see on any visit. It’s possible to see experts making artisan cheeses while you learn about the cheesemaking process and sample a few products. The cheese is aged in the cave at a temperature of 50 degrees with 85% humidity to create the perfect environment for a tasty product. It’s possible to buy some cheese at their market — which also sells seasonal produce, bread, and lots of other Montana-made products.
Besides the food-based spots, Greycliff Mill is also home to a small wool-weaving studio, and there are accommodations if you want to spend the night in restored log cabins or reclaimed farm silos. Greycliff Creek Ranch offers horseback rides and a chuckwagon dinner for more authentic Montana experiences. Whether you’re visiting especially to see the cheese cave, or road tripping and need a break, Greycliff Mill is a quirky and special spot. One Google reviewer summed up the experience well, praising the “amazing rustic atmosphere,” and saying, “I stopped for a coffee and ended up staying just to enjoy the view. Great coffee, peaceful place, and such a unique spot. Definitely worth the stop if you’re driving through Montana.”
Greycliff Mill is between Bozeman and Billings, the largest city in Montana and surrounded by natural beauty. It’s almost equidistant between the two cities — 1 hour to Bozeman and 1 hour to Billings. The closest major airport is Billings-Logan International Airport, although Bozeman Yellowstone International Airport, Montana’s mountain gem of an airport, is also a convenient option.
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