Montana
MT Supreme Court rules laws, including one on transgender athletes, violate Board of Regents' authority
HELENA — The Montana Supreme Court has upheld a lower court ruling that found three bills from the 2021 state legislative session overstepped onto the authority of the Montana University System Board of Regents.
The most prominent of the bills was House Bill 112, which banned transgender female athletes at public schools from participating in women’s sports. A majority of justices agreed that bill was unconstitutional as applied to colleges and universities.
In addition to HB 112, the court also ruled against:
· House Bill 349, which limited how colleges and universities could discipline students for certain speech and when they can deny recognition to student organizations.
· A section of Senate Bill 319 that would have required student organizations that also function as political committees – specifically the advocacy group MontPIRG – to be funded through a fee that students can pay if they opt in, instead of one they are required to pay unless they opt out.
A large group of individuals and organizations filed suit over these bills. In their arguments, the plaintiffs made the case that the Montana Constitution gives the Board of Regents full authority to oversee the state’s university system, and that the bills infringed on that authority. In 2022, a district judge in Gallatin County sided with the plaintiffs.
Attorneys for the state argued the plaintiffs did not have legal standing to challenge the laws. On HB 112 specifically, they said the law was not targeting the Board of Regents or universities specifically, and that the board had not established a policy on transgender athletes.
Justice Ingrid Gustafson wrote in her ruling – joined by Chief Justice Mike McGrath and Justices Laurie McKinnon and Jim Shea – that the plaintiffs had established standing by showing they would be harmed by the bills, and that they could make the argument the bills unconstitutionally infringed on the Board’s authority even if the Board itself did not sue.
Gustafson said the Board of Regents had essentially expressed a judgment on how to handle transgender athletes by linking participation to NCAA and NAIA requirements. She said HB 112 does address elementary and high schools as well as colleges and universities, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t infringing on the Board.
“The Legislature cannot avoid Article X, § 9’s grant of power to the Board by simply adding non-MUS institutions to the law,” she wrote.
Gustafson also said, because the state had focused its arguments on stating HB 112 was not unconstitutional, they had essentially conceded on the other two bills, so the district court’s ruling against them should stand. The state said they centered their defense on the merits on HB 112 for briefing reasons, not because they were conceding the other bills were unconstitutional.
While four out of seven justices agreed to find the bills unconstitutional, they were split on whether the plaintiffs were entitled to receive attorney fees from the state. The district judge had ruled against the plaintiffs’ request. Because a majority of justices didn’t agree fees were warranted, that decision remained in place.
Justice Jim Rice wrote a dissenting opinion, in which he argued the plaintiffs did not have standing in the case and that only the Board of Regents itself should have had the authority to file suit claiming an infringement of its authority. Justice Dirk Sandefur agreed with Rice, but added his own short opinion saying that, if the plaintiffs did have standing, he would agree that the bills were unconstitutional as the majority had ruled.
Read the justices’ full opinions below:
The Montana Lottery offers multiple draw games for those aiming to win big.
Here’s a look at March 2, 2026, results for each game:
Winning Powerball numbers from March 2 drawing
02-17-18-38-62, Powerball: 20, Power Play: 2
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Winning Lotto America numbers from March 2 drawing
03-08-17-24-34, Star Ball: 06, ASB: 02
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Winning Big Sky Bonus numbers from March 2 drawing
06-12-19-29, Bonus: 11
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Winning Powerball Double Play numbers from March 2 drawing
21-28-58-65-67, Powerball: 25
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Winning Millionaire for Life numbers from March 2 drawing
28-41-42-50-55, Bonus: 02
Check Millionaire for Life 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.
Everyone makes mistakes, even experienced professionals; a good reminder for the rest of us to learn from those mistakes. The motion in State v. Stroup starts off well in its initial pages (no case law hallucinations), but is then followed by several pages of two other motions, which I don’t think the lawyer was planning to file, and which appear to have been AI-generated: It begins with the “Below is concise motion language you can drop into …” language quoted above.
Griffen Smith (Missoulian) reported on the story, and included the prosecutor’s motion to strike that filing, on the grounds that it violates a local rule (3(G)) requiring disclosure of the use of generative AI:
The document does not include a generative artificial intelligence disclosure as required. However, page 7 begins as follows: “Below is concise motion language you can drop into a ‘Motion to Admit Mental-Disease Evidence and for Related Instructions’ keyed to 45-6-204, 45-6-201, and 4614-102. Adjust headings/captions to your local practice.” Page 10 states “Below is a full motion you can paste into your pleading, then adjust names, dates, and styles to fit local practice.” These pages also include several apparent hyperlinks to “ppl-ai-file-upload.s3.amazonaws,” “ppl-ai-fileupload.s3.amazonaws+1,” and others. The document includes what appears to be an attempt at a second case caption on page 12. It is not plausible on its face that any source other than generative AI would have created such language for a filed version of a brief….
There’s more in that filing, but here’s one passage:
While generative AI can be a useful tool for some purposes and may have greater application in the future, when used improperly, and without meaningful review, it can ultimately damage both the perception and the reality of the profession. One assumes that Mr. Stroup has had, or will at some point have, an opportunity to review the filing made on his behalf. What impression could a review of pgs. 12-19 leave upon a defendant who struggles with paranoia and delusional thinking? While AI could theoretically one day become a replacement for portions of staff of experienced attorneys, it is readily apparent that this day has not yet arrived.
The Missoulan article includes this response:
In a Wednesday interview, Office of Public Defender Division Administrator Brian Smith told the Missoulian the AI-generated language was inadvertently included in an unrelated filing. And he criticized the county attorney’s office for filing a “four-page diatribe about the dangers of AI” instead of working with the defense to correct her mistake.
“That’s not helping the client or the case,” Smith said, “and all you are doing is trying to throw a professional colleague under the bus.”
As I mentioned, the lawyer involved seems quite experienced, and ran for the Montana Public Service Commission in 2020 (getting nearly 48% of the vote) and for the House of Representatives in Montana’s first district in 2022 (getting over 46% of the vote) and in 2024 (getting over 44%). “Его пример другим наука,” Pushkin wrote in Eugene Onegin—”May his example profit others,” in the Falen translation.
Thanks to Matthew Monforton for the pointer.
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