Margot Barg Ogburn e s q
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</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Court denies attorney fees in Montana campaign finance case</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Missoulian State Bureau </b>Dec 6, <b>2012 </b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">HELENA – American Tradition Partnership and other parties can’t recover nearly $140,000 in attorney fees from the state after successfully suing to strike down the 1912 Corrupt Practices Act, the Montana Supreme Court ruled.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In a 6-1 decision last week, the Supreme Court upheld District Judge Jeffrey Sherlock of Helena, who had denied the request for the state to pay the plaintiffs’ attorney fees.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Seeking their attorney fees were American Tradition Partnership, a Washington, D.C., group formerly known as Western Tradition Partnership, Champion Painting Inc., of Bozeman, and Montana Shooting Sports Association, based in Missoula.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">They challenged Montana’s voter-passed 1912 law that prohibited corporations from making independent expenditures for or against political candidates, citing the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2010 Citizens United vs. FEC decision. Sherlock agreed and struck down the state law, but refused to grant attorney fees.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>The Montana Supreme Court, however, reversed Sherlock in December 2011 in a 5-2 decision and upheld the Montana law.</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">American Tradition Partnership and the others appealed that ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court. In June, the nation’s highest court, in a 5-4 decision, summarily reversed the Montana Supreme Court and struck down the state law.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The groups argued they were entitled to have the state reimburse them for the legal fees under the “private attorney general doctrine.” Under that doctrine, private parties in lawsuits can argue for reimbursement of their legal fees in cases in which they sue to vindicate important constitutional rights that the government has failed to enforce.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">ATP and the others argued they also were entitled to legal fees under Montana’s Uniform Declaratory Judgments Act.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Supreme Court Justice Beth Baker, writing for the majority, said the court could not conclude that “equitable consideration required it to award fees against the state under either the Uniform Declaratory Judgments Act or the private attorney general doctrine.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">She noted that District Judge Sherlock didn’t abuse his discretion in determining that the state had mounted a good-faith defense of the Corrupt Practices Act.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“While the attorney general did not prevail, it is difficult to conclude that his arguments were frivolous when five members of this court were convinced of their merit,” Baker wrote. “In the final analysis, even though ATP vindicated principles of constitutional magnitude, the state’s defense also was grounded in constitutional principles and in an effort to enforce interests the executive deemed equally significant to its citizens.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Justice James Nelson dissented, saying the corporations should have been awarded legal fees under the private attorney general doctrine.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>The lawyer representing ATP was Margot B. Ogburn of Bozeman.</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Helena judge dismisses most of American Tradition Partnership lawsuit</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">HELENA – A state judge has dismissed the heart of a lawsuit by a conservative political group fighting state efforts to regulate it, after the…</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">American Tradition Partnership: Feds take secretive conservative group's documents</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">HELENA — State officials said Thursday that a federal grand jury has subpoenaed disputed documents involving a secretive conservative group th…</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Shadowy political group's director resigns; group faces more legal questions</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">HELENA – The director of the besieged “dark money” political group that mounted a full-scale assault on Montana’s campaign-finance laws resign…</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Helena judge rules 'dark money' group violated election laws</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">HELENA – The conservative “dark money” political group fighting state efforts to force disclosure of its finances lost another key court decis…</font></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div>