Law should be non-partisan

As I travel around the state to meet with Montanans, I’m often asked, “What’s wrong with our current Supreme Court?”  My answer is simple.

 Some of our judges – including my opponent – are putting politics before the law.  My opponent has a long partisan history, including repeatedly seeking office as a partisan elected official and even donating to a Democrat ally after becoming a Supreme Court Justice.  He hasn’t put that partisanship aside on the bench.

A judge’s job is to apply the law, not change the law to suit his own personal or partisan agenda.   When court decisions are results-oriented, instead of driven by the law, those decisions become unpredictable.

Montana’s Supreme Court is well known for frequently ignoring its own precedent and overturning previous Court decisions.  This unpredictability prevents Montana families and businesses from knowing how they will be treated in our court system, which leads to more litigation that imposes additional costs on the people of Montana.

Most Montanans will never be before the Montana Supreme Court.  But an unpredictable and unfair court still affects us all, by driving up costs and creating uncertainty for everyone.

To return predictability to Montana’s legal system, our Court must be as impartial as possible, with all personal preferences and motives left at the door.  Justices must not be beholden to special interests or personal agendas, but rather to the laws as passed by the people.  That’s how I believe our Court must be, and that’s why I’m running for Supreme Court Justice.

Lawrence VanDyke is a candidate for Montana Supreme Court