News & Commentary

On May 16, 2018, a U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agent illegally detained Ana Suda and Martha “Mimi” Hernandez in Havre, Montana. Captured on video, the agent’s stated reason for detaining them was because they were speaking Spanish.

Montana agencies are withholding public documents possible about Keystone XL pipeline protest preparations.Today, the ACLU of Montana, Western Environmental Law Center, and the Bahr Law Offices challenged two Montana state agencies’ refusal to release public records relating to the Keystone XL Pipeline. The documents in question pertain to the government’s plans in response to protests. The ACLU is concerned that such plans may include spying on protesters, suppressing constitutionally protected free speech rights, and responding with militarized police tactics. 

2019 brought a lot of battles to the courts, another legislative session, and more people on the ground in the fight for Indigenous justice, against the criminalization of poverty, and upholding rights for all. As the year comes to a close, we want to thank you for being part of the ACLU of Montana! 

Indigenous students face highest disparities in out-of-school suspensions and arrests.According to a new ACLU of Montana report, students in Montana lost more than 18,000 days of school during the 2015-2016 school year because of out-of-school suspensions. During the same school year, students were referred to law enforcement agencies from school or a school-related function 1,121 times and were arrested at school or a school-related function 326 times. Students of all ages – including elementary school children – were suspended, referred to law enforcement, and arrested. “Education is a civil right, and all students must be given equitable opportunities to learn,” said Caitlin Borgmann, ACLU of Montana Executive Director. “The data is extremely troubling and shows too many students in Montana being denied this fundamental right.” Indigenous students faced the highest disparities: they lost nearly six times the rate of instruction and were arrested more than six times as often as their white peers. The ten schools with the highest rate of days lost because of suspensions were located either on a reservation or in a town bordering a reservation. Indigenous students in urban areas also experienced disparities in days lost. Indigenous female students had the highest school-related arrest rates among all students -- they were arrested at 12 times the rate of white female students. Public schools on reservations were more likely to have a law enforcement officer (LEO) at school. Montana’s use of exclusionary discipline and police in schools is especially harmful to Indigenous students because of the legacy of colonization, historical trauma, and overincarceration of Indigenous people.“Indigenous students bear the brunt of Montana’s failure to provide an education to all students,” Borgmann said. “Montana has failed to adequately address the harms of its colonialist legacy. Indigenous people in Montana remain disproportionately impoverished and imprisoned. Denying Indigenous students their right to an education only serves to perpetuate this unconscionable legacy.”Students of color and students with disabilities also experienced disparities in days lost, referrals, and arrests. Black students were referred to law enforcement at a higher rate than any other race and lost nearly three times as many days of instruction as white students. Latinx students lost 1.5 times the rate of days as white students. Students with disabilities lost twice the rate of instruction and were arrested twice as often as students without disabilities. Other main findings of the report include: 

Steven Keefe was only 17 when he was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. At the time of his sentencing, he was too young to vote, buy cigarettes, or join the military. Yet, under our broken criminal justice system he was old enough to be put into prison for the rest of his life.

On October 11 and October 12, Indigenous nations will gather for a two-day environmental symposium. This gathering is the first of its kind on Fort Peck. Water protectors, activists, environmentalists, and concerned tribal members will come together for two days of learning and discussion about protecting the environment, the people, and the sacred lands on which Fort Peck is located. After the violent and excessive response from government agencies to peaceful protestors at Standing Rock, the ACLU filed federal and state open records requests to learn if the government has any plans to obstruct the free speech rights of Indigenous protestors to the Keystone XL Pipeline. At the symposium, the ACLU will present a Know Your Rights workshop and lead a discussion about legal observing.

In Espinoza v Montana Department of Revenue, the Supreme Court will address a question that would have been unthinkable to ask even until quite recently: Can a state be forced to underwrite religious education with taxpayer dollars? Although the court has previously allowed the government to adopt school-voucher programs that provide indirect government aid to religious schools, it has never suggested that the U.S. Constitution somehow requires them to do so — and certainly not in the face of state constitutional rules barring taxpayer funding of religious education. Yet that is essentially what the petitioners are seeking in Espinoza, the latest in a disturbing line of cases attacking the very foundations of the separation of church and state.At issue in Espinoza is a voucher-type program in Montana designed to divert millions in government dollars to private schools, the overwhelming majority of which are religiously affiliated. The program, enacted in 2015, allows taxpayers to receive dollar-for-dollar tax credits for donations to Student Scholarship Organizations, which then award scholarships to students attending private elementary and secondary schools. In other words, if a taxpayer owes the state, say, $100 in taxes, she can decide instead to send that money directly to an SSO, which will then spend it on private-school scholarships. In practice, the tax-credit program has served its unmistakable goal of funneling government dollars to religious education: The only SSO operating in the state supports 13 private schools, 12 of which are religiously affiliated, and over 94 percent of program scholarships have gone to finance religious education.

This week, Montana Attorney General Tim Fox joined 18 other states in support of the unconstitutional and dangerous law in North Carolina that bans abortions after 20 weeks. In response to the brief AG Fox signed, the following statement is by Caitlin Borgmann, ACLU of Montana's Executive Director. "Efforts to ban constitutionally protected abortions are out of touch and could create real harms for people who need access to the full spectrum of reproductive healthcare. It’s embarrassing to see Montana sign on to the multi-state brief in support of North Carolina’s backwards-looking and short-sighted law. The government has no place between doctors and their patients, and nobody should have to justify their personal medical decisions to the government. Attorney General Tim Fox has shown how out of step he is with Montanans by signing on to this brief."