C & C Plywood Corp. v. Hanson

EUGENE A. WRIGHT, Circuit Judge:

In this appeal by the Montana Commissioner of Campaign Financing and Practices, we affirm the judgment of the district court which held unconstitutional a state statute forbidding corporations or banks from making contributions to promote or defeat any ballot issue.

The action by the plaintiff corporations attacks only the constitutionality of the 1975 addition of the words “or ballot issue” to Mont.Rev.Code § 23 — 4744 (1947). The 1975 amendment legislatively overruled State ex rel. Nybo v. District Court, 158 Mont. 429, 492 P.2d 1395 (1972), in which the state…