Montana
MTN profiles candidates for Montana Supreme Court associate justice
HELENA — MTN is continuing our look at the closely watched races for two open seats on Montana’s Supreme Court.
Justice Dirk Sandefur was elected to the court in 2016, and he decided not to seek another eight-year term in 2024. That led to three people filing for a chance to win one of the six associate justice positions. The two candidates with the most votes in the June primary will move on to the general election in November.
The first two people to announce they were running for associate justice are both state district court judges.
Jonathon Ambarian
Dan Wilson, of Kalispell, is one of five judges of the 11th Judicial District, which covers Flathead County. He was elected to the position in 2016 and reelected in 2022. Wilson previously worked as a deputy county attorney, then spent about a decade in private practice, doing a variety of work – including family law and criminal defense. In 2010, he was elected as a justice of the peace for Flathead County. He says he wants to center his campaign on his experience and record.
“I’m not running to carry water for any sort of political issue or any political group,” Wilson said. “I’m merely offering up again my candidacy to Montanans as a judge with a proven record for following the law and the Constitution, and one who doesn’t insert his own views or the views of stakeholders or interested parties or special interests to determine whether something passes a legal test or not.”
Wilson says recent political tensions around the court are an inevitable when branches of government are in conflict over their roles. He said it’s important for justices to hold to legal standards when making their decisions, and that he doesn’t believe Montanans want justices to advocate for particular interests.
“The Supreme Court functions best, I believe, when it is the quiet branch, when it’s simply there resolving disputes in a fair and constitutional way – that it does its level best to avoid making unsolicited or unnecessary comments attacking any other branch of government, but simply issues opinions that are well supported by the Constitution, the rule of law, logic and good reason,” he said.
Jonathon Ambarian
Katherine Bidegaray, of Sidney, has been a district judge since 2003 – one of two serving the 7th Judicial District, which covers Richland, Dawson, McCone, Prairie and Wibaux Counties on Montana’s eastern edge. She said her rural and eastern Montana background would bring a different perspective to the court.
Bidegaray says the current Supreme Court justices are doing a good job, citing a state survey of judges and attorneys that showed 80% of respondents agreed the court’s decisions were based on facts and applicable law. She said accusations that the court has overstepped its role are misplaced.
“I think it is especially important during these times that we have a judiciary that remains fair and impartial, that remains independent of the other two branches of government, and that is prepared to fulfill its function of correcting an abuse of power if, in fact, one of the other two branches of government, including the legislature, overreaches the constitutionally provided powers it has,” she said.
Bidegaray says it’s important to stand up against what she sees as political attacks on the judiciary.
“I just want to be able to do my part so we can maintain our democracy and the rule of law and protect the beautiful rights that our Montana Constitution provides us, which include some really unique rights: the right to privacy, the right to equality of education, the right to access to public lands and water, and the right to a clean and healthful environment,” she said. “Those are unique in our Constitution, and those rights have been under attack.”
Jonathon Ambarian
The third candidate is in an unusual position: admitting his eligibility for the court is likely to be questioned. Jerry O’Neil is a former Republican state lawmaker from Columbia Falls who spent eight years in the state Senate and four years in the House. He describes himself as a mediator and independent paralegal, but he’s not a licensed attorney under the State Bar of Montana.
The Montana Constitution says candidates for Supreme Court must have been “admitted to the practice of law in Montana for five years.” O’Neil says the court and the bar are acting as a “monopoly” by preventing someone from getting licensed as an attorney or practicing law in state courts without having attended an accredited law school.
In December, he filed a federal lawsuit, asking the court to rule that he was eligible to run for Montana Supreme Court because he has been admitted to practice law in Blackfeet tribal court. However, after he filed his candidacy, he dropped the case, telling MTN he thought the judge would likely rule against him “to protect his monopoly.”
O’Neil said, if he wins, he believes his election would not be challenged.
“They might do it, but I don’t think they’re going to go against the public like that,” he said.
O’Neil said he was running for the Supreme Court because he believed justices had been overstepping their role on issues like abortion and election regulations, and because he wanted to further challenge the court and the bar.
“The voters I’ve talked to are up in arms over the Supreme Court legislating from the bench, and the majority of them, virtually all of them, are not appreciative of the attorney monopoly,” he said.
Montana voters will also select a new chief justice this year. Three candidates are also running for that position.
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.
HELENA — You probably have goals and plans for 2026—the Montana Department of Agriculture does too.
“We’re really focusing on innovative agricultural practices,” Montana Department of Agriculture director Jillien Streit said.
It’s no secret that agriculture—farming and ranching—is not easy. There are long days, planning, monitoring crops and livestock, and other challenges beyond farmers’ and ranchers’ control.
(WATCH: Montana Department of Agriculture focusing on innovation in 2026)
Montana Department of Agriculture focusing on innovation in 2026
“We have very low commodity prices across the board,” Streit said. “We still have very high input prices across the board, and we have really high prices when it comes to our equipment, and so, it’s a really tough year.”
But innovation, including new practices, partnerships and technology use, can help navigate some of those challenges.
“We can’t make more time and we can’t make more land, so we need to start putting together innovative practices that help us maximize what our time and land can do,” Streit said.
Practices range from using technology like autonomous tractors and virtual fencing—allowing rangers to contain and move cattle right from their phones—to regenerative farming and ranching.
“It is bringing cattle back into farming operations to be able to work with cover cropping practices to invigorate the soil for new soil health benefits,” Streit said.
The Montana Department of Agriculture is working to help producers learn, share, and collaborate on new ideas to work in their operations.
The department will share stories of practices that work from farms and ranches across the state. Also, within the next year or so, Streit said the department is hoping to roll out technology to help producers collaborate.
“(It’s) providing a communication platform where people can get together and really help each other out by utilizing each other’s assets,” she said.
While not easy, agriculture is still one of Montana’s largest industries, and Streit said innovating and sharing ideas across the state can keep it going long into the future.
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