Courts & rulings
Montana · highest court
Montana Supreme Court
Elected (nonpartisan)
Chief: Elected statewide in a nonpartisan election to a distinct chief-justice seat (separate from associate-justice races); midterm vacancies filled by gubernatorial appointment.
Justices
All judges & justices →- Cory Swanson
- James A. Rice
- Beth Baker
- Laurie McKinnon
- James Jeremiah Shea
- Ingrid Gustafson
- Katherine M. Bidegaray
Roster as of 2026-06-13.
Constitution of Montana
Adopted 1972. Its declaration of rights sits in Article II (Declaration of Rights). This court has the final word on what the Montana constitution means.
Primacy, interprets its own constitution first
How a state reads its own rights provisions relative to the federal floor, lockstep vs departure.
State-court structure and selection methods are from official and reference sources; the justice roster is point-in-time. Civibrief carries each state's highest court (lower state courts are out of scope for now).