State v. Items of Real Property Owned and/or Possessed by Chilinski

¶1 Article II, Section 26 of the Montana Constitution guarantees to individuals that the right to a jury trial is “secured to all and shall remain inviolate.” However, this inviolate right encompasses only non-equitable causes of action to which the right had already attached at common law when the Montana Constitution was adopted. At issue here is whether the right to a jury trial attaches to an in rem forfeiture proceeding arising from the alleged use of real property to manufacture dangerous drugs, but nonetheless unconnected to a state drug prosecution. The District Court ruled the right…