Law Commons^™

"Santa Baby, Just Slip A Sable Under The Tree For Me:" Or At Least A Catchall Exception To The Hearsay Rule?, Cynthia Ford

Faculty Journal Articles & Other Writings

This article examines Montana's two rule-based "catchall" or "residual" hearsay exceptions, and a statutory exception that applies only to child declarants in criminal cases.

Williams V. Board Of County Commissioners Of Missoula County, Ross Keogh

Public Land & Resources Law Review

The Montana Supreme Court affirmed the Fourth Judicial District Court’s holding that Montana Code Annotated § 76-2-205(6) was an unconstitutional delegation of legislative power. The statute contains a “protest provision” which enabled landowners owning 50% of the property taxed as forest or agriculture to stop zoning decisions. The case resulted from efforts by Missoula County to zone land north of Lolo to address public health and safety concerns posed by gravel mining, and asphalt production operations, proposed by Liberty Cove, Inc. The Court also found the protest provision of the statute severable from the general zoning power.[1]

[1] Williams, …

"As I Lay Dying:" A Halloween Meditation On The Use Of Dying Declarations In Montana, Cynthia Ford

Faculty Journal Articles & Other Writings

This article discusses the Montana hearsay exception for "dying declarations."

Commonwealth Edison Co. V. State Of Montana: Constitutional Limitations On State Energy Resource Taxation, Nancy K. Stalcup

Pepperdine Law Review

This note examines the case of Commonwealth Edison Co. v. State of Montana, where the United States Supreme Court analyzed and defined the permissible limitations of state energy resource taxation. While the Court adhered to the test of constitutional taxation established in Complete Auto Transit Inc. v. Brady, which strongly upheld a state's sovereign right to tax a local incident of interstate commerce, the Court failed to realize the practical ramifications of its ruling in the context o the nation's energy problems.

Foreword: The State Of The Republican Form Of Government In Montana, Anthony Johnstone

Faculty Law Review Articles

This foreword to the 2012 Browning Symposium contributes to the discussion of republican forms of government in the states by situating Montana's experience in broader themes of federal intervention in state republicanism. It serves as an epilogue to match Jeff Wiltse's prologue, which reexamines the election in 1912 that gave birth to the Corrupt Practices Act by examining the aftermath of the U.S. Supreme Court's burial of that law 100 years later.

Part I of the foreword considers the recent federal constitutional challenges that dismantled elements of the republican form of government that prevailed in Montana for the past century. …

The Supreme Court And The Ppl Montana Case: Examining The Relationship Between Navigability And State Ownership Of Submerged Lands, Richard C. Ausness

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

The United States Supreme Court held in PPL Montana v. Montana held that the State of Montana did not own the beds beneath certain rivers and, therefore, rejected the State's claim that the power company owed it millions of dollars in "back rent" for the use of the riverbeds as sites for ten of its hydroelectric power plants. The Montana Supreme Court, which had ruled in favor of the State, declared that even if portions of a river were not navigable for commercial purposes because of physical conditions, the entire river would be treated as navigable if commercial traffic could …