Citizen Grand Jury Bill Fails on House Floor

Bill would have allowed public to petition for a citizen-led grand jury, which would have been its own judge.

Brandonrush, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

Citizen grand juries aren’t coming to Montana, at least for now.

House lawmakers voted down legislation to change the state’s constitution to allow citizens to summon a jury via petition was voted down 40-60 on Tuesday afternoon.

Representative Tom Millett, R-Marion, sponsored House Bill 460 which he said was intended to hold “public officials, institutions and individuals accountable for their actions” and mentioned it was a tool against corruption.

“It is my firm belief that a citizen’s grand jury offers a range of benefits that can help restore trust, ensure fairness and protect the rights of all citizens,” Millett said on the House floor.

The bill would have allowed for 100 registered voters in a county, plus an additional 1/2 percent of the county’s population regardless of a county’s size, to petition to convene a grand jury. Once the threshold is met and sent to the county’s election administrator, a judge would impanel an 11-person jury.

The bill would have been a constitutional amendment brought to the voters.

The grand jury would act as its own judge, according to the bill. Similar legislation has been passed in Kansas, Nebraska, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Nevada and North Dakota.

Montana has seen some support for citizen grand juries in the past, two similar bills during the 2023 session failed to pass. Another attempt in 2010 died as well. Comments from former Representative Lola Sheldon-Galloway, who was the sponsor of one of two bills, included her saying grand juries weren’t part of any of the three branches of government.

At least one member of Tactical Civics, a group that teaches the U.S. is a Christian nation and its members are empowered to hold public officials accountable, also spoke in favor Sheldon-Galloway’s bill.

The group, which according to Lee Newspapers has gained something of a foothold in Montana and educates people on how to form a “constitutional militia,” has the goal of creating citizen grand juries and expanding the U.S. House of Representatives, and its members believe much of the federal government to be illegal and warn of corruption.

Opponents said in committee and on the floor that it could be used to target people for little reason at all.

Representative Ed Stafman, D-Bozeman, a former civil rights lawyer, spoke in strong opposition to the bill on the floor.

“A bit of research on these few other states that allow for citizen grand juries will show that they’ve mostly been used to investigate government officials based on conspiracy theories or vendettas,” Stafman said. “The most common use was to investigate alleged government complicity in the September 11 attacks or issues around President Obama’s birth certificate.”

Millett did not agree with the characterization.

“A lot of these objections that I hear, they all center around the potential for people misusing this process to go after their political enemies,” Millett said. “I don’t agree with that. I actually believe that claim is a slap in the face to everybody in Montana.”

By Jordan Hansen for the Daily Montanan