The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in May that a Montana law banning any mention of ethics complaints before the commissioner has issued a ruling was in violation of the First Amendment. This decision was reached as part of a case in which the state of Montana has now agreed to pay Montana House Majority Leader Brad Tschida around $75,000 in a lawsuit he filed to strike down the law keeping ethics complaints confidential. Tschida filed the lawsuit after he was criticized by then-Commissioner Jonathan Motl for revealing that he had filed an ethics complaint against Gov. Steve Bullock shortly before the 2016 election.
While the ethics complaint itself was summarily dismissed, an order filed this week by U.S. District Judge Brian Morris approved the $75,000 payout, which Tschida’s lawyer has stated is for legal costs, between Tschida and the Commissioner of Political Practices and permanently bars Montana from enforcing the law.
