This year’s 2025 legislative session in Helena has produced a record number of proposed bills. One of those is SB 97 sponsored by state Senator John Fuller, R-Kalispell. Under current Montana law any citizen who wishes to challenge the constitutionality of newly enacted legislation can do so by filing a legal challenge within the county that they reside.
SB 97, if enacted, would force the person challenging the constitutionality of the newly enacted legislation to have to travel to the county of the primary sponsor of that legislation to file the legal challenge. In Helena to testify against the bill, this Montanan did not hold back in assailing the shortcomings of the bill by starting off stating that it was a slap on the face to all Montanans. My testimony continued by highlighting the expense and the time a citizen would have to put forth in traveling across the state because the party that sponsored the bill would purposely have the sponsor be as far away from the population centers of Montana as possible. In doing so, I stated it was obvious that it was the wishes of the party over the people that was driving this proposed legislation. To drive the point home, I used as an example a scene from the movie Dr. Zhivago, and then asked all the members of the committee, “With this proposed legislation becoming a law will I be living in 21st-century Montana or Bolshevik Russia?” I ended my testimony with a do not pass SB 97.
I then took a single seat in the back of the hearing room right next to the double exit doors. As the hearing ended on the last of the bills being heard Senator Fuller got up and started to exit the room. As he passed with an earshot of me he said, “Next time I need someone to advocate for bill I know who to call,” and gave me two friendly pats on my right shoulder as he walked out the committee room. Having just trashed his proposed legislation he returned the favor by complimenting me on my testimony and showing me respect and courtesy rarely seen in American politics today.
So, there I sat, in the original Montana Supreme Court chambers wondering what would happen if everyone who so forcefully disagrees with one another in politics treated each other with the same dignity and respect Senator Fuller presented me that day? Where would we be as a state, as a nation, if everyone from the President of United States on down displayed the same respect and dignity to every individual or group that disagrees with them? It reminded me of a heated discussion I had with my father, the World War II combat veteran, a couple weeks before he succumbed to cancer in 2003. In the heat of the argument, he turned to me and said, “Isn’t it great we live in a country where we agree to disagree?” Regardless what political opposites Senator Fuller and I may be, he reminded me that day that we agree to disagree, and still treat one another with dignity and respect.
No, he is not a RINO. No, he is not weak. He is a former teacher of U.S. history along with being a Montanan, and an American. The style of politics he displayed was the politics of the state when I first arrived here in 1973, and continued until the influence of national politics through modern media overwhelmed the civility and respect that had been Montana politics for decades. Will I be rising in fiery opposition to SB 97 when it comes up in front of the House Judiciary Committee? You can bet the ranch on it, because it’s not personal, it’s just politics. And when the power of party politics seeks to handcuff the power of the people this Montanan will always speak out.
John Marshall
Hot Springs