United States Ninth Circuit

The district court's permanent injunction enjoining defendants, Montana's Attorney General and Commissioner of Political Practices, from enforcing in its entirety a Montana statute making it a criminal offense for any political party to "endorse, contribute to, or make an expenditure to support or oppose a judicial candidate" in a nonpartisan judicial election, is: 1) affirmed in part, where, to the extent that defendants challenged the permanent injunction against enforcement of the statute's ban on endorsements and expenditures, the court is bound to follow its prior published decision finding those provisions unconstitutional; but 2) reversed in part and remanded, where the prior decision had not reached the issue of the constitutionality of the statute's ban on contributions and that no such challenge had subsequently been raised.

Appellate Information

• Decided 06/21/2013
• Published 06/21/2013

Judges

• RAKOFF

Court

• United States Ninth Circuit

Counsel