I don't often weigh in on judicial races. They're supposed to be non-partisan, but we all know they are not at all “non-partisan”. All you have to do is take a look at the donor list of each candidate and investigate the donors themselves.

The race between Judge Dan Wilson and Judge Amy Eddy for the Montana Supreme Court is the most important thing on your ballot this fall — more important, frankly, than most of the legislative races people will spend their time arguing about. Here's why: the Supreme Court has become the branch that overrules the other two. When the Legislature passes a law — say, HB121, which simply keeps men out of women's bathrooms — it's the courts that decide whether that law survives. Progressive judges around this state know it, too. They can block a law they don't like, confident the Supreme Court has their back. That's not how a republic is supposed to work, and it's exactly why this race matters more than the "non-partisan" label lets on.

Let's start with the primary. Judge Eddy beat Judge Wilson by about 7,600 votes out of well over 270,000 cast. That's close, and it should worry every conservative in this state, because Eddy has resources behind her that Wilson doesn't — the Montana Trial Lawyers Association chief among them, along with a long list of left-wing nonprofits I'll get to in a minute.

Judge Dan Wilson is the real deal. Thirty-two years in the law — private practice, Justice of the Peace, District Court Judge — and he's won every office he's held at the ballot box, not by appointment. His judicial philosophy is about as plain as it gets: apply the Constitution and the law as written, according to their original meaning, without inventing new law from the bench. During COVID, when the Bullock administration tried to strong-arm five Flathead businesses over mask mandates, Wilson didn't cave the way so many did. He ruled that the harm to those businesses and their employees had to be weighed too. That's a judge who understands limited government isn't just a slogan.

Amy Eddy is a different story entirely. She wasn't elected to the bench first — she was appointed by Democratic Governor Steve Bullock, and has run as an incumbent ever since. Her campaign says she'll be "fair, impartial, and independent." Look at who's actually behind her and judge for yourself. Every major endorser listed on her own website is a sitting or former liberal justice, or a hard-left advocacy group: Montana Conservation Voters (funded almost entirely by out-of-state foundation money, including a Seattle foundation bankrolled by a foreign billionaire), the public employee unions, Montana NOW, and groups pushing "reproductive rights" — which in plain English means abortion on demand. She's a past president of the Montana Trial Lawyers Association, the same outfit quietly bankrolling her campaign while it goes unmentioned on her own website.

As a lawyer, Eddy argued the Montana Supreme Court had no choice but to seize control of emissions regulation statewide. When the Court said no, she said the Court got it wrong. That's not a woman who keeps politics out of the courtroom — that's radical environmentalism dressed up as legal argument, and it's a direct threat to how Montanans use their own land and resources.

I'll say this plainly: watch out for the dirty tricks. A mailer went out in Billings calling Wilson "dangerous" for a plea deal from 2017-18, conveniently leaving out that the defendant got ten years, violated parole, and is sitting in Deer Lodge right now. That mailer traces back to Eddy-aligned groups. When your opponent's supporters have to lie about your record two days before you campaign in a city, that tells you something about how badly they need to change the subject.

Montanans, don't vote for a candidate just because of the letter — or in this case, the black robe — next to their name. Look at who's funding them and what they actually believe. Dan Wilson has spent thirty-two years earning the public's trust the honest way. Amy Eddy has spent her career serving the interests of trial lawyers, radical environmentalists, and the abortion lobby. This November, vote for the Constitution. Vote Dan Wilson.