Under the headline, “Things a Chief Justice oughtn’t be doing,” Travis Kavulla over at Electric City Weblog writes: “Pitching a voter initiative qualifies in my book.”
He was referring to Montana Supreme Court Chief Justice Mike McGrath, who introduced a ballot measure this week that would take $5 million a year to fund more alcohol and drug courts. <a href="http://www.flatheadbeacon.com/articles/article/montana_chief_justice_pitches_drunken_driving_ballot_initiative/15944/" title="From the Associated Press:”>From the Associated Press:
Lawmakers were both receptive to the idea and skeptical of a plan that would take millions from beleaguered state coffers.
The Law and Justice Committee also started drafting a blueprint for legislation it will take to the 2011 Legislature. Early ideas would stiffen penalties and give the justice system more tools to offer drug and alcohol treatment.
Kavulla isn’t the only blogger who thinks McGrath, the former state attorney general, could be politicizing his position on the bench. James Conner at Flathead Memo writes:
In my opinion, he [McGrath] has no business presenting the legislature with a ballot measure (which could be either a legislatively mandated referendum on the disposition of the booze tax, or a citizen’s initiative to put the issue on the ballot). In proposing where to get the money, and how to get it allocated, he stopped being an source of expert information and started being a political partisan on an issue that might well come before his court.