Opinion ID: 878567
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Heading: sources of public policy in montana

Text: Public policy is that principle of law which holds that no citizen can lawfully do that which has a tendency to be injurious to the public or against public good. Spaulding v. Maillet (1920), 57 Mont. 318, 323, 188 P. 377, 378-9. Public policy is typically found in the constitution and the laws and the course of administration. St. Louis Mining & Milling Co. v. Montana Mining Co. (1898), 171 U.S. 650, 655, 19 S.Ct. 61, 63, 43 L.Ed. 320, 322. In determining the public policy of this state, legislative enactments must yield to constitutional provisions, and judicial decisions must recognize and yield to constitutional provisions and legislative enactments. Progressive Life Ins. Co. v. Dean (1936), 192 Ark. 1152, 97 S.W.2d 62; Electrical Contractors' Ass'n v. A.S. Schulman Elec. Co. (1945), 391 Ill. 333, 63 N.E.2d 392. Judicial decisions are a superior repository of statements about public policy only in the absence of constitutional and valid legislative declarations. State ex rel. Holt v. District Court (1936), 103 Mont. 438, 446, 63 P.2d 1026, 1029; State v. Gateway Mortuaries, Inc. (1930), 87 Mont. 225, 235, 287 P. 156, 157.