BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — Montana’s Supreme Court on Wednesday dismissed a misconduct case against the state’s attorney general after he defied court orders in a dispute over a law that gave the governor more power over the judiciary.
A court-appointed panel last year found that Attorney General Austin Knudsen repeatedly attacked the integrity of the justices in his defense of a 2021 law permitting the state’s Republican governor to directly fill judicial vacancies. The panel had recommended that his license to practice law be suspended for 90 days.
Justices ruled Wednesday that Knudsen had violated rules of conduct for attorneys but said the panel violated his due process rights by excluding his expert witness from the case.
Knudsen had urged the high court to dismiss the case against him. He said in a statement Wednesday that the compliant against had been a distraction during his time in office.
“I appreciate the Supreme Court bringing this frivolous complaint to a long-overdue conclusion,” Knudsen said. “We’ve said it from the very beginning, this was nothing more than a political stunt.”
Chief Justice Cory Swanson wrote that Wednesday’s order amounted to a “public admonition” over Knudsen’s misconduct.
The dispute between Montana’s chief law enforcement officer and its high court centered on a law that was part of a nationwide GOP effort to forge a more conservative judiciary and was eventually upheld by Montana’s Supreme Court.
In his defense of the 2021 law, Knudsen’s office in court filings accused state Supreme Court justices of judicial misconduct, corruption, self-dealing, “actual impropriety” and having a conflict of interest.
Following a complaint against Knudsen, the 13-member panel — a group of lawyers and others known as the Commission on Practice of the Montana Supreme Court — determined that the attorney general’s office “repeatedly, consistently and undeniably,” violated professional conduct rules.
Knudsen had argued that any punishment should have been handled privately.
Swanson wrote Wednesday that the extensive litigation in the case was “far worse” than a private admonition that had been previously considered.
All but two of the court’s seven justices recused themselves from Knudsen’s case because of their involvement in the dispute with his office. They were replaced by five district court judges and joined by newly elected Chief Justice Swanson and Justice Katherine Bidegaray.
Knudsen acknowledged during a hearing last fall that a lot of things should have been done differently in representing the Legislature over the extent of its subpoena powers.
“If I had this to do over, I probably would not have allowed language like this — so sharp — to be used,” Knudsen testified.
The panel noted that Knudsen repeatedly refused to admit that any of his actions or language in court filings violated professional conduct rules.
Matthew Brown, The Associated Press
