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Senate bill would open court deliberations to public inspection; Supreme Court and legal groups urge caution (SB 40)
Summary
Sen. Greg Hertz’s SB 40 would require recording and public disclosure, with redactions, of Supreme Court deliberations after cases become final; Chief Justice Corey Swanson and others warned it could undermine internal deliberative processes and raised confidentiality concerns.
Senator Greg Hertz, Senate District 7, presented Senate Bill 40 to require the Montana Supreme Court to record closed meetings that concern judicial deliberations and to make those records available to the public once a case becomes final, subject to redaction for matters that “clearly merit” privacy.
Hertz said the bill implements the state constitution’s “public’s right to know” and argued that withholding judicial deliberations is inconsistent with the framers’ intent. He described…
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