{"id":36492,"date":"2024-10-30T14:26:32","date_gmt":"2024-10-30T20:26:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/meic.org\/?p=36492"},"modified":"2024-10-31T14:28:30","modified_gmt":"2024-10-31T20:28:30","slug":"lawsuit-asks-court-to-stop-montana-legislative-services-from-keeping-bill-draft-documents-secret","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/meic.org\/lawsuit-asks-court-to-stop-montana-legislative-services-from-keeping-bill-draft-documents-secret\/","title":{"rendered":"Lawsuit asks court to stop Montana Legislative Services from keeping bill draft documents secret"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Keila Szpaller, Daily Montanan<\/p>\n

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The Montana State Flag flies in front of the Montana State Capitol in Helena on Wednesday, April 26, 2023. (Photo by Mike Clark for the Daily Montanan)<\/p><\/div>\n

Documents related to drafting bills can\u2019t be kept secret from the public, and a new policy that creates a barrier to the information interferes with the \u201cright to know\u201d protected in the Montana Constitution, a new lawsuit alleges.<\/p>\n

For decades, members of the public \u2014 including journalists and lobbyists \u2014 had access to documents related to proposed bills. Those files, called \u201cjunque\u201d files, could include emails that showed who might be influencing legislation.<\/p>\n

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Read the full story.<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Keila Szpaller, Daily Montanan Documents related to drafting bills can\u2019t be kept secret from the public, and a new policy that creates a barrier to the information interferes with the \u201cright to know\u201d protected in the Montana Constitution, a new lawsuit alleges. For decades, members of the public \u2014 including journalists and lobbyists \u2014 …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-36492","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nLawsuit asks court to stop Montana Legislative Services from keeping bill draft documents secret - Montana Environmental Information Center - MEIC<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/meic.org\/lawsuit-asks-court-to-stop-montana-legislative-services-from-keeping-bill-draft-documents-secret\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Lawsuit asks court to stop Montana Legislative Services from keeping bill draft documents secret - Montana Environmental Information Center - MEIC\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Keila Szpaller, Daily Montanan Documents related to drafting bills can\u2019t be kept secret from the public, and a new policy that creates a barrier to the information interferes with the \u201cright to know\u201d protected in the Montana Constitution, a new lawsuit alleges. For decades, members of the public \u2014 including journalists and lobbyists \u2014 …\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/meic.org\/lawsuit-asks-court-to-stop-montana-legislative-services-from-keeping-bill-draft-documents-secret\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Montana Environmental Information Center - MEIC\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/MTEIC\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-10-30T20:26:32+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-10-31T20:28:30+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/dailymontanan.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/230426-CapitolStockPhotos02-1536x1025.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Peyton Olson\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@MTEIC\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@MTEIC\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Peyton Olson\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/meic.org\/lawsuit-asks-court-to-stop-montana-legislative-services-from-keeping-bill-draft-documents-secret\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/meic.org\/lawsuit-asks-court-to-stop-montana-legislative-services-from-keeping-bill-draft-documents-secret\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Peyton Olson\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/meic.org\/#\/schema\/person\/9120b8109e7ffe824cb49486420e8133\"},\"headline\":\"Lawsuit asks court to stop Montana Legislative Services from keeping bill draft documents secret\",\"datePublished\":\"2024-10-30T20:26:32+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-10-31T20:28:30+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/meic.org\/lawsuit-asks-court-to-stop-montana-legislative-services-from-keeping-bill-draft-documents-secret\/\"},\"wordCount\":127,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/meic.org\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/meic.org\/lawsuit-asks-court-to-stop-montana-legislative-services-from-keeping-bill-draft-documents-secret\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/dailymontanan.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/230426-CapitolStockPhotos02-1536x1025.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"News\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/meic.org\/lawsuit-asks-court-to-stop-montana-legislative-services-from-keeping-bill-draft-documents-secret\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/meic.org\/lawsuit-asks-court-to-stop-montana-legislative-services-from-keeping-bill-draft-documents-secret\/\",\"name\":\"Lawsuit asks court to stop Montana Legislative Services from keeping bill draft documents secret - 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