Montana’s top court just dropped a bombshell by tossing out a misconduct case against Republican Attorney General Austin Knudsen, despite his clear defiance of court orders back in 2021.
The crux of this saga is simple: Montana’s Supreme Court ruled to dismiss the case against Knudsen for violating professional conduct rules while defending a controversial law, though they didn’t let him off without a stern public admonition, the Mirror reported.
For hardworking Montana taxpayers, this ruling raises serious questions about accountability at the highest levels of state government, especially when legal exposure from unchecked executive overreach could end up costing the public in future lawsuits or eroding trust in the judiciary.
Let’s rewind to 2021, when this mess kicked off with Knudsen championing a law that would let the Republican governor bypass traditional checks to fill judicial vacancies directly.
This was no small potatoes—it was part of a broader GOP push, tied to initiatives like the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025, to steer the judiciary toward a more conservative bent, a move many see as a counter to progressive overreach in the courts.
At the same time, Montana lawmakers were busy trying to dismantle a commission that vetted judicial candidates, while a Supreme Court administrator stirred the pot by polling judges on the legislation using state resources.
Things got spicier when the Legislature subpoenaed thousands of emails from the Department of Administration after the administrator claimed to have deleted relevant correspondence—only for 5,000 messages to surface the next day.
Though the Montana Supreme Court later quashed that subpoena, some of those emails had already leaked to the press, fueling Republican claims that judges were overstepping by striking down laws on hot-button issues like abortion and gun rights.
Knudsen, in the thick of it, openly defied court orders during this showdown, earning a scathing assessment from a 13-member panel that found he “repeatedly, consistently, and undeniably” broke professional conduct rules.
Fast forward to the recent ruling, and the Montana Supreme Court unanimously shot down Knudsen’s argument that his role as attorney general somehow shielded him from disciplinary action.
Yet, in a twist, the court threw out the case because the panel handling it trampled on Knudsen’s due process rights by sidelining his expert witness and failing to justify their stance adequately.
Still, they didn’t let him skate free, issuing a public admonition and a sharp reminder, as Chief Justice Cory Swanson wrote, “We plainly warn all Montana attorneys, including Knudsen and his subordinates, to obey lawful orders of all courts.”
Knudsen, for his part, didn’t mince words, stating, “I appreciate the Supreme Court bringing this frivolous complaint to a long-overdue conclusion,” dismissing the whole ordeal as a political hit job from the start.
While conservatives might cheer this as a win against what they see as a weaponized legal system, let’s not ignore the court’s warning—obeying lawful orders isn’t optional, even for the state’s top lawyer, and Montanans deserve leaders who don’t play fast and loose with the rules.
