Judge denies last-ditch lawsuit from GOP Senate president to disqualify Jones, Fitzpatrick

A final attempt to halt the reelection bids of two powerful Montana Republican lawmakers has failed after a district court judge on Thursday denied a request to block the secretary of state from certifying ballots with their names on them.

Judge Brett Linneweber’s decision caps off 10 days of political pandemonium in Montana triggered by an official opinion from Attorney General Austin Knudsen that undid a 14-year precedent permitting legislators to switch chambers every eight years without violating term limit rules written into the Montana Constitution.

That new opinion would have booted longtime legislators Rep. Llew Jones, R-Conrad, and House Majority Leader Rep. Steve Fitzpatrick, R- Great Falls, from the November ballot only days before the secretary of state was set to certify the lineup of candidates.

In the lawsuit filed in Park County District Court on Thursday, Republican Senate President Matt Regier alleged the secretary of state had been incorrectly applying Montana’s constitutional term limits ever since a 2012 opinion from then-Attorney General Steve Bullock, a Democrat, was handed down that okayed the chamber-switching practice. He and the other plaintiffs, Republican senators and candidates, said a different 1997 Attorney General Opinion was the correct interpretation of a constitutional measure approved by voters five years earlier.

But the judge said Thursday’s chess move did not introduce any new legal arguments beyond what had already been adjudicated by a Lewis and Clark County District Court judge and the Montana Supreme Court in the days prior.

“However, despite their ready ability to have challenged the Secretary of State’s ongoing certification process in place for the last fourteen years, Plaintiffs failed to bring this action until today, the same day as the certification deadline of August 20, 2026,” Linneweber wrote. “Only yesterday, the Montana Supreme Court denied a Writ on what is substantively a nearly identical—if not identical—claim.”

After looking at the lawsuit on Friday morning, Fitzpatrick called it “unbelievable.”

“Matt Regier is a desperate loser,” he said.

The last-gasp legal challenge was filed by Regier, whose efforts to steer hardline priorities through the Legislature last session were stymied by a moderate, bipartisan coalition spearheaded by Jones. GOP Sens. John Fuller from Kalispell, Ken Bogner from Miles City and Barry Usher from Yellowstone County, as well as Jason Gunderson, a Republican candidate for Senate District 29, which includes Livingston, joined him as plaintiffs.

Attorney General Opinions carry the weight of law unless the Legislature or a court intervenes.

The plaintiffs’ attorneys argued in Thursday’s suit that allowing any candidate deemed ineligible under the Knudsen Opinion’s interpretation of constitutional term limits — here, Fitzpatrick and Jones — onto the ballot would disrupt the election.

“Allowing an ineligible candidate onto the ballot and attempting to address the resulting constitutional problem only after certification or election would defeat the protection the Constitution itself provides,” their lawyer wrote.

In July, Regier asked Knudsen to issue an official opinion on constitutional term limits.

Knudsen issued his opinion on Aug. 11, just one week until this week's deadline for the secretary of state to certify ballots.

Jones and Fitzpatrick filed a lawsuit against the attorney general and secretary of state shortly after the opinion was published. Their attorneys argued that Regier did not have the authority to request the opinion and alleged that blocking their certification from the ballot would disenfranchise voters.

The request to Knudsen, which came after Jones narrowly beat a primary opponent backed by Regier and state party leadership, has been characterized by critics as clearly political. Regier did not return multiple requests for comment on Friday, but earlier this week he denied the allegation that his request was a political stunt. He told the Montana State News Bureau Jones was simply the "poster child" for term limit violations, and it was "nothing personal."

Bogner said Friday he signed onto the lawsuit “not as a political attempt to get anyone off the ballot,” but because “I feel strongly about the issue.”

“Term limits mean you take a break from the Legislature," Bogner said.

The timing of the Knudsen Opinion didn’t just give some observers the impression it was politically motivated. It also forced a legal sprint at every step.

On Tuesday, a Lewis and Clark County District Court judge presided over oral arguments from both parties. Less than a day later, he granted a preliminary injunction blocking the Knudsen Opinion and requiring Montana Secretary of State Christi Jacobsen to keep Jones and Fitzpatrick on the ballot.

Lawyers for the attorney general’s office hours later filed a request with the Montana Supreme Court asking for an emergency pause on that injunction and on Jacobsen’s pending ballot certification so the high court could evaluate the case on its merits with more time. A five-justice panel that included Chief Justice Cory Swanson declined to take up the case, saying that the urgency had been artificially created by the attorney general’s decision to issue his opinion “at the last possible hour.”

Regier filed the last-ditch lawsuit in Park County on Thursday, the deadline for the secretary of state to certify ballots.

Linneweber took note of that time crunch and the past week’s flurry of legal machinations that played out in judicial venues across the state. He cited both as part of the rationale for ruling against Regier and the other plaintiffs.

“The Court weighs the procedural effects that a court’s order changing an election immediately before the deadline has, particularly the risks to orderly elections,” he wrote in his order. “The trend is to not allow late injunctions because of the confusion and chaos it creates.”

The judge handed down his decision to deny both the temporary restraining order and the preliminary injunction less than 24 hours after the case had been filed. The accelerated timeline played a central role in the court’s decision, as it has in every twist and turn of this matter since Knudsen’s opinion was first issued.

“Plaintiffs may very well be correct with respect to the substance of their argument. However, the timing of this issue was entirely within the Plaintiffs’ control,” Linneweber wrote. “Because the Plaintiffs unduly delayed bringing their complaint, the changes in question are not feasibly implemented without causing significant chaos to the orderly administration of the election process."

Linneweber dismissed the suit from Regier on Friday. The case in Lewis and Clark County District Court over which interpretation of the term limits is correct will continue.

Fitzpatrick said he believed the Park County lawsuit was inappropriate and an attempt to interfere with that already-pending lawsuit.

The election is Nov. 3, and both Jones and Fitzpatrick will be on the ballot for voters in their respective districts.