Monthly Column from the Friends of the Montana Constitution
By Rick Applegate, First published in the Helena IR on October 11, 2025
Montana is fortunate to have a state Constitution that stands at the top of the most innovative and comprehensive statements of civil liberties, political freedoms and citizen protections in any U.S. Constitution. There are over three dozen provisions in the document, most in the Declaration of Rights, containing numerous safeguards for Montana citizens. Reviewers all over the country have concluded that Montanans are among the most protected citizens in America.
Of course, you’d have to be living on another planet to miss the ongoing severe assaults on civil liberties and political freedoms these days. The news is littered with erupting controversies; and our courts are flooded with dozens of the most serious and consequential civil rights lawsuits in our history.
Montana’s rights and freedoms are found primarily in the Declaration of Rights, where they have been in effect for well over a half-century, providing Montanans with protections and opportunities not available in other parts of the country. The impressive list includes the right to know; the right of participation; the right to assemble and protest; the recently buttressed right to a clean and healthful environment; the unimpaired right to vote; the right to pursue life’s basic necessities; recognition of the fundamental right to dignity; provisions barring discrimination by public and private entities; an equal rights amendment not yet secured in the federal Constitution; a strong expression of the freedoms of speech and religion; guarantees of due process; and more. All these deserve protection from efforts to weaken or repeal them.
Unfortunately, the state legislature and the executive have too often attempted to reduce or eliminate protections with actions that go squarely against the grain of the Constitution. There have even been dismaying efforts to reshape the state’s independent judiciary to overcome legitimate judicial rulings that have held that these unwise actions violate the Constitution.
Recently it took the persistence of courageous and engaged young citizens to establish that the right to a clean and healthful environment is a fundamental part of their birthright, the key to the livability of their future, and ours. Fortunately, their lawsuit was successful.
Their timely engagement is just one example that has inspired similar action in other states, proving that Montana remains a functioning little laboratory for the expansion of civil rights for all.
Our nation and state are no strangers to controversy. In these deeply polarized times, in the toughening years ahead, it is important for Montanans to set the best example possible, to avoid the acrimony and vile rhetoric and violence that too often dominate our public lives. To work together to deliberate on and make progress on contentious and real problems; to build on the state’s foundational law; to halt the degradation of public life; to face and learn the lessons of our history; to recommit to cultural diversity; to redouble efforts to heal the obvious damage to lands and waters; to help lift up the neglected and disadvantaged. Yes, the list is at least that long, and it’s a heavy lift. But Montana’s citizens are proving they are up to the task.
In Montana, it is critical to guard the Constitution, to resist undermining it, to avoid letting it slip away. In short, it is vital to continue protecting the citizens of the state and its future.
The Montana Constitution provides the opportunity for all this. With whatever successes and failures might occur, the future remains to be created and nurtured by engaged citizens — not in pursuit of grift, personal gain or vengeance, but as the Constitution clearly states at the top of the Declaration or Rights, for the common good. For all of us. Pursuing the common good requires protecting the state Constitution. Has and always will.
Rick Applegate is a native Montanan, born and raised in Libby. He was researcher and staff analyst for the Bill of Rights Committee at the 1972 Montana Constitutional Convention; staff director for US Senators and a member of the US House of Representatives in Washington DC. He worked for over thirty years in senior natural resource management positions in the Pacific Northwest. He resides in Tucson where he remains active in natural resource and social justice issues in the Sonoran Southwest.