From legislative secrecy to Constitutional sunlight
Only a handful of us who served in the legislature under the old 1889 Montana Constitution still survive. That constitution reflected the dominant power of the copper mining industry when Montana achieved statehood.
It was also ridiculously verbose and prescriptive, and by the late 1960s a consensus had developed that the time had come for our 1889 Constitution to be replaced. Among the people’s major concerns was the secrecy by which laws were made within the Legislature.
It was 1971 when, at 23, I took my seat in the Montana House of Representatives – the youngest member. The House chamber was overwhelming in its grandeur. What I didn’t know then was that what went on in that grand place was far less grand than its setting.
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