Opinion ID: 881789
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Art. VII, Sec. 8(2) Mont. Const.

Text: What interpretation is to be placed on the requirement of subsection (2) as to the election before each succeeding term of office? Is this provision to be limited to an appointee or does it also cover an elected justice or judge? In Keller v. Smith we held that the second sentence of subsection (2) required every unopposed, incumbent, Supreme Court Justice or District Court Judge to run on an approval or rejection ballot in the next general election prior to the expiration of the term, irrespective of whether he or she attained office through appointment or election. Keller, 170 Mont. at 408, 553 P.2d at 1008. The Court also stated in dicta that the word incumbent in the first sentence of subsection (2) refers only to appointees. Keller, 170 Mont. at 406, 553 P.2d at 1006-07. The Attorney General relies on that statement in support of his position that the first sentence of subsection (2) only mandates election for confirmed appointees. We have examined subsection (2) and subsection (3) and considered the use of the word incumbent in the five different places contained in those subsections. Our examination of the Constitutional Convention records does not indicate that the delegates intended different meanings for the same word in two succeeding sentences. If we held that the first sentence applied only to appointed judges when it used the term incumbent, that would contradict Keller's conclusion that incumbent in the second sentence referred to both appointed and elected judges. Both sentences are clearly meant to be read together. The first sentence of subsection (2) provides for contested elections when a candidate files against an incumbent. The second sentence provides for approval-or-rejection election when no candidate files against the incumbent. We conclude that the first sentence of subsection (2) refers to both appointed incumbents and elected incumbents, in a manner similar to the second sentence of subsection (2) as interpreted in Keller. However, that conclusion is not decisive of the issue before us.