Youth Climate Plaintiffs Challenge Montana Law Seeking Venue Transfer Out of Helena

Attorneys representing youth climate plaintiffs in Held v. Montana II filed a constitutional challenge to a 2025 Montana law that would allow a state legislator to yank their lawsuit out of the First Judicial District and send it hundreds of miles east, arguing the maneuver violates separation of powers, due process, and the right to open courts.

The challenge targets SB 97, which gives certain intervening legislators the authority to move venue for lawsuits that challenge statutes. Ler, a Republican from Savage and sponsor of one of the three laws the suit contests, invoked SB 97 to seek a transfer to the Seventh Judicial District, a five-county stretch of eastern Montana where his own legislative district sits.

Held v. Montana II was filed in Broadwater County after the Montana Supreme Court declined to take up the case. Broadwater County and Lewis and Clark County together comprise the First Judicial District, the same court where the original Held v. Montana trial was heard. The new suit challenges three laws passed during the 2025 legislative session: House Bill 285, sponsored by Ler; House Bill 291, sponsored by Rep. Greg Oblander, R-Billings; and Senate Bill 221, sponsored by Sen. Wylie Galt, R-Martinsdale. Galt's senate district covers part of Broadwater County.

Attorneys with McGarvey Law in Kalispell and Our Children's Trust in Oregon, who also represented the plaintiffs in the original trial, filed a brief opposing the venue change. They argued the suit was properly filed in Broadwater County and that Lewis and Clark County is an appropriate alternative because the defendants reside there. The brief characterized Lewis and Clark County as historically the "proper venue for actions against the State," with the district court carrying deep expertise in cases where the State and state agencies are defendants and in questions of constitutionality.

The plaintiffs gave the court a fallback option: if a transfer is unavoidable and Richland County in the Seventh Judicial District is the only destination available, the brief asked that the lawsuit be split so only the challenge to Ler's HB 285 would be transferred, leaving the challenges to Oblander's and Galt's bills in the First Judicial District.

McGarvey Law and Our Children's Trust, joined by the Western Environmental Law Center, represented the plaintiffs when the original Held v. Montana trial concluded in June 2023. No court ruling on the venue motion or the constitutional challenge to SB 97 had been issued as of the date of the filing.