Montana

The Montana Supreme Court has ruled that a plaintiff can pursue a lawsuit against the company that promised to help her with credit-card debt relief, the Montana Standard's Kathleen J. Bryan reports. The plaintiff alleges that Global Client Solutions used '“deceptive and fraudulent representations to solicit her participation in an illegal debt settlement plan.”'

The Supreme Court held that the plaintiff's contract with debt-relief firm Global Client Solutions included an arbitration clause that lacked mutuality and was therefore unenforceable, Bryan reports.

As many as 45,000 more Montanans will be get health coverage after legislators have passed a bill to expand Medicaid, The Huffington Post's Jeffrey Young reports. Gov. Steve Bullock, a Democrat, supports expanding Medicaid. The expansion also must be approved by the federal government because it includes new requirements for enrollees, including monthly premiums.

Two years ago, the expansion failed because a supporter cast the deciding vote the wrong way accidentally, Young reports.

Legislators in Montana have proposed a limited expansion of Medicaid that would cover 15,000 to 18,000 people earning less than 100 percent of the federal poverty level, the Independent Record reports, but the plan would not allow Montana to take a federal subsidy that would expand coverage to 70,000 more people. Democratic Governor Steve Bullock wants to accept the money. The federal government would pay the entire cost in 2016 and 95 percent of the cost in 2017,  but the state would have to pick up 10 percent of the expansion cost by 2020, the newspaper further reports.

U.S. District Judge Brian Morris ruled yesterday that Montana's ban on same-sex marriage is unconstitutional, the Los Angeles Times reports. He found that the state's constitutional ban on same-sex matrimony violated the U.S. Constitution's guarantee of equal protection.

Montana Governor Steve Bullock, a Democrat, has asked legislators once again to expand health coverage for 70,000 low-income Montanans, the Independent Record reports: "Legislative Republicans rejected a Medicaid-expansion proposal in 2013, arguing the state couldn’t afford it and that they didn’t want to implement part of 'Obamacare,' the 2010 federal health-care law. Bullock ... said his new plan is a unique proposal for expanding Medicaid. It would use federal money to contract with a private administrator to process claims and run a network of physicians, hospitals and other providers to serve the newly covered population, he said."

At least $730,000 has been spent on a Montana Supreme Court race, Hungry Horse News reports. More money has been spent on challenger Lawrence VanDyke than incumbent Justice Mike Wheat. Wheat has been labeled as more liberal than VanDyke. Trial lawyers have contributed to Wheat and conservative groups like the Republican State Leadership Committee and Americans for Prosperity-Montana have been contributing to VanDyke.

Wheat blames some of the ads on the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Citizens United, which now allows corporations to directly spend money on political campaigns ads.

There's been a strange twist in two Montana Supreme Court races, the Independent Record reports: U.S. Sen. Jon Tester has accused Stanford University and Darmouth College of "voter manipulation" for their role in a mailer sent regarding the Supreme Court races. The 2014 "Montana General Election Voter Information Guide" rated that four candidates as more liberal and more conservative and was sent by a Stanford research project funded with $250,000 from the Hewlett Foundation and $100,000 from the university, the Independent Record further reports. The project's website says its studying how candidate positioning affects voter turnout in judicial elections when races are nonpartisan. Tester said he has concerns about the universities testing hypotheses on the voting public.

There's been a strange twist in two Montana Supreme Court races, the Independent Record reports: U.S. Sen. Jon Tester has accused Stanford University and Darmouth College of "voter manipulation" for their role in a mailer sent regarding the Supreme Court races. The 2014 "Montana General Election Voter Information Guide" rated that four candidates as more liberal and more conservative and was sent by a Stanford research project funded with $250,000 from the Hewlett Foundation and $100,000 from the university, the Independent Record further reports. The project's website says its studying how candidate positioning affects voter turnout in judicial elections when races are nonpartisan. Tester said he has concerns about the universities testing hypotheses on the voting public.

The Ninth Circuit has ruled that past criminal convictions in American Indian courts can't count as proof of a defendant's criminal history if defendants weren't guaranteed the right to an attorney, The Guardian reports. Michael Bryant Jr. was convicted of domestic assault in Northern Cheyenne Tribal Court but didn't have an attorney. While the Eighth and Tenth Circuits have found that tribal convictions aren't governed by the American Constitution, the Ninth Circuit has ruled that Bryant's conviction wasn't legal because the Sixth Amendment guarantees the right to an attorney.

In 2009, the Montana Supreme Court rejected a civil liberties lawsuit seeking full marital rights for same-sex couples as too broad and without enough specificity on discrimination laws, the Billings Gazette reports. Now the ACLU has filed a lawsuit which "cites specific statutes that prevent gay couples from receiving equal rights and protections medically, financially and over crucial end-of-life decisions," the Billings Gazette also reports.