Source: https://www.lawpipe.com/Montana/City_of_Billings_v_Gonzales.html
Timestamp: 2019-04-24 06:11:29+00:00

Document:
In City of Billings v. Gonzales, 2006 MT 24, 331 Mont. 71, 128 P.3d 1014, 1016 (Mont. 2006), the Supreme Court of Montana reached a similar conclusion in interpreting its statutory scheme, which, like Maryland's, grants the privilege to drive only to those who have been issued a driver's license or otherwise qualify for a statutory exemption.
A separate provision prohibits driving "when the person's privilege to do so is suspended or revoked."
The distinction throughout Title 61 between "license" or "driving privilege" . . . demonstrates that individuals lawfully can drive in Montana either by obtaining a driver's license pursuant to § 61-5-102, MCA, or by establishing that they have a privilege to drive without a license pursuant to § 61-5-104, MCA.
The plain language of § 61-5-212, MCA, requires that a person possess a privilege to drive before that privilege can be suspended or revoked. We have determined that the privilege to drive must be granted by law. Therefore, absent a license or privilege to drive without a license pursuant to § 61-5-104, MCA, the State cannot convict a person under § 61-5-212, MCA, with driving while license suspended or revoked. Adopting the State's position would require this Court to enlarge the phrase "suspended or revoked" of § 61-5-212, MCA, to include a driving privilege never granted. It is not the role of this Court to insert what has been omitted when applying statutes. Id. at 1016-17.
The Montana Supreme Court recognized that the State's "recourse when dealing with unlicensed drivers" is to charge them "with driving without a license," even if that violation carries a slightly lesser penalty than the one for driving on a revoked or suspended license. See id. at 1017.
Thus, "a reasonable and sensible interpretation of the relevant statutory scheme leads us to conclude that a person who does not have a privilege to drive, either through a driver's license or statutory licensure exemption, cannot be charged with driving while their privilege has been suspended or revoked." Id.

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