Trevis Butcher is now suing the State of Montana in federal court, declaring that efforts by Commissioner of Political Practices Dennis Unsworth to determine who funded Butcher's group Montanans in Action amounts to a violation of free speech rights. How are the free speech rights violated?
Subpoenas issued by Unsworth's office are violating free-speech and free-association rights because they will force the group to reveal its political associations and strategies, the suit said.
Yeah, and an investigation into my vote-buying schemes at the university violate my right to free speech and free association.
It's hilarious that one of the three initiatives these folks sponsored was going after "activist" judges, because they clearly want an activist judge to rule in this case.
My guess, although I'd hope the lawyer readers would chime in, is that this case is likely a lost cause, unless we decide that all campaign finance disclosure (not even campaign finance limits) are unconstitutional.
And if we do that, it's game over for integrity.
By the way, let's not forget some of Butcher's greatest hits:
Filing hundreds of FOIA requests using a huge amount of time and energy of state workers and clarifying that he did not actually know why he was filing the requests.
Rather than devoting resources to making any sort of response to the allegations of fraud, Butcher's outfit decided to try to get the minimum wage initiative tossed from the ballot, despite the fact that the time for such challenges had passed.
I've heard that Butcher is still trying to get a court opinion on whether CI-97 is constitutional. That confirmed my suspicions that Montanans in Action will be back in 2008.
Fortunately, we know that the track record of MIA and their sister organizations is disastrous. Of 35 attempted initiatives, only one passed. In Montana, we were well on our way to defeating 'em.
They want to throw more money into Montana? I'm not really one to object.
I just wish they wouldn't try to hide where it's coming from.
