Montana State Constitution

Montana State Constitution

Women Delegates at the 1972 Montana State Constitution

The Montana State Constitution was written at the 1972 Constitutional Convention and adopted by a vote of the people.  Nineteen of the 100 delegates were women, of whom nine were members of the League of Women Voters. 

Visit the Friends of Montana Constitution website to learn more about efforts to support and maintain the 1972 state constitution.

Preamble: We the people of Montana grateful to God for the quiet beauty of our state, the grandeur of our mountains, the vastness of our rolling plains, and desiring to improve the quality of life, equality of opportunity and to secure the blessings of liberty for this and future generations do ordain and establish this constitution.

You can show your support for Montana's Constitution by adding your name to the Declaration of Support!  Here is the link:  https://my.lwv.org/montana/show-your-support-our-montana-constitution

Educator Resources

New lesson plan on the Montana Constitutional Convention of 1972. Bigfork high school teacher Cynthia Wilondek spent a year creating an intensive dive into Montana’s constitutional convention. The multipart lesson first asks students to analyze and compare the preambles of both the 1889 and 1972 Montana Constitutions. Then it asks students to explore how the 1972 constitution came to be, before researching some of the major people and events of the 1972 Constitutional Convention and presenting their findings in a digital “yearbook.” While the full lesson takes eight to eleven 50-minute class periods, parts can be used independently. If you teach high school government, Montana history, or even English, consider teaching all or part of Cynthia's lesson. 

Read more here.  

Montana Constitution 50th Anniversary Videos

Montana's 1972 Constitutional Convention was a remarkable event, not the least because 19 of the 100 elected delegates were women, the largest percentage of women at a state constitutional convention in history!   Montana's Constitution has been heralded as one of the most advanced constitutions in the nation.

See the videos below for more information about this amazing document, the process that brought it into being, and the rights and responsibilities of citizens in Montana.  

VIDEOS

Privacy: Our Right To Be Let Alone - Panel on Montana's Constitutional Right of Privacy with Jim Nelson, Patricia Cotter, Raph Graybill, and Mae Nan Ellingson. Presented October 3, 2022.

Freedom of the Press and the Public's Right to Know

Diane Sands presents The Women of the Montana Constitutional Convention. A must-watch for LWV members!

Hosted by Lewis & Clark Library on March 29, 2022, four experts on voting laws discuss the rights that Montana's landmark constitution gives to citizens that could be challenged in the near future. Speaking are Jeremy Johnson (Carroll College), Mark Meloy (Attorney), Alex Rate (ACLU Montana), and Keaton Sunchild (Western Native Voice).

Celebrating the 50th Anniversary of Montana's Constitution and its Legacy. Streamed live at Montana State University on March 22, 2022. With Sarah Vowell and John Adams (moderating) and former Governor Marc Racicot, journalist Charles S. Johnson, ConCon delegate Mae Nan Ellingson, former Superintendent of Public Instruction Denise Juneau, and former Senator Max Baucus.

There are few events in the history of the state of Montana that can equal what happened in the early and mid-1970s to involve and include the citizens of our great state, including the League of Women Voters. "The Need, Construction, and Implementation of the 1972 Montana Constitution" was hosted by Great Falls Rising on the occasion of the 50th Anniversary of the 1972 Constitutional Convention. The speakers were Bob Brown and Dorothy Bradley (legislators), Nancy Leifer (League of Women Voters of Montana), Evan Barrett (ConCon Historian), and ConCon delegates Arlyne Reichert, Lyle Monroe, Mae Nan Ellingson , Gene Harbaugh and Jerry Loendorf. Recorded February 23, 2022.

Montana Mosaic 8: Montana's Quiet Revolution. This 23-minute video describes the "quiet political revolution" of the 1960s and 1970s that culminated in Montana's 1972 Constitutional Convention. Produced by the Montana Historical Society.

In the Crucible of Change (2014), a series hosted by Evan Barrett, featured three of the “founding grandparents” of the Constitutional Convention in 1972. (L-R) Toni Haegner, LWV and AAUW member and Hill County commissioner and three-term MT legislator. Jean Bowman, leader in the Montana LWV and served as a delegate and ConCon Secretary. Ty Robinson, Missoula attorney who was the last remaining member of the ConCon Commission, which set up the structure of the convention.