News & Commentary

At Liberty sits down with Meg Singer, the Indigenous Justice Program Manager here at the ACLU of Montana, and Lillian Alvernaz, the ACLU's first Indigenous Justice Legal Fellow, to discuss Indigenous justice and organizing for social change in Indigenous communities. To learn more about Meg and Lillian, and our Indigenous justice work go here. 

Around 9:20 p.m. on Sunday, April 23, 2017, Eugene Mitchell, Shayleen Meuchell, and their four-year-old daughter were in bed at their home in Lolo, Montana, when they heard a violent crash. “It sounded like a truck had driven straight into our house,” Mitchell later said. In a surreal flash, armed bounty hunters kicked in the front door, broke into the bedroom, pointed assault rifles and pistols at the family, and shouted at them not to move.

The American Civil Liberties Union, ACLU of Montana, and Terrell Marshall Law Group today filed a lawsuit against private entities. Bail bondsmen, bounty hunters, and insurance companies profit off our country’s exploitative, for-profit bail system.

This week, investigators with the United States Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights (OCR) are visiting with students and parents in Wolf Point to learn about their experiences with discrimination in the Wolf Point School District.

The Montana Human Rights Bureau last week released a finding in support of a transgender woman who experienced unlawful discrimination during her time as an employee for Yellowstone County.Eleanor Andersen Maloney, a transgender woman, was denied all gender-affirming healthcare under Yellowstone County’s Group Health Benefit Plan. According to the complaint -- filed by the ACLU of Montana in September of 2018 -- Eleanor belongs to a protected class on the basis of her sex, but the County discriminated against her because she is a transgender woman. Under both state and federal law, discrimination against people for being transgender is a type of sex discrimination.The Montana Human Rights Bureau found that“[i]f an insurance product carves out medical procedures, relying only on a person’s status as transgender as the determinative criterion, this is a distinction based on sex and it violates the Montana Human Rights Act’s insurance provision.” According to the investigative report, “the County is denying medical procedures related to changing from one sex to another sex.  If Montana has a statute that says an insurance product cannot discriminate on the basis of ‘sex’ and an insurance product denies coverage for procedures involved in changing from one sex to another sex, it seems like a leap of logic to argue this is not ‘sex’ discrimination.”After the County denied Ms. Maloney multiple requests for pre-approval of coverage for medically necessary gender-affirming healthcare services, she filed formal grievances with Yellowstone County Human Resources, and ultimately filed a complaint with the Montana Human Rights Bureau.  The County had denied all of her requests, and even denied payments for Ms. Maloney's therapeutic counseling - a service that was covered until the County found out that the sessions were for treatment of gender dysphoria.“It’s very simple: discrimination on the basis of gender identity is illegal,” said Elizabeth Ehret, ACLU of Montana Attorney. “Yet, the only reason Eleanor was denied coverage for her healthcare was because of her gender identity. We are pleased with the findings of the Montana Human Rights Bureau and hope this leads to a change in Yellowstone County’s policy.”The complaint sites that the discrimination against Ms. Maloney was unlawful under the Montana Human Rights Act, the Montana Constitution, the Federal Constitution, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, and the Affordable Care Act.“I was denied medically necessary coverage because of an outdated and discriminatory insurance practice,” said Eleanor. “It hurts to be treated differently just because of who you are.”

Anybody who has family members struggling with addiction — or struggles with it themselves — knows that increased penalties will not help Montanans.  Instead of further punishing people by criminalizing addiction, the state could improve people’s lives and make our communities safer by spending tax dollars on prevention and treatment services. Kudos to the House Judiciary Committee for voting against HB 534. SK Rossi, Advocacy and Policy Director

F

The ACLU of Montana and the ACLU Immigrants’ Rights Project filed a class-action lawsuit this week on behalf of people unlawfully jailed at the Gallatin County Detention Center at the request of U.S. Immigration officials. According to the complaint, Gallatin County officials are exceeding their authority under Montana law by imprisoning people on the grounds that they may have committed a civil violation under federal immigration law. 

We’re suing CBP for violating our rights as U.S. citizens.