This story is excerpted from Capitolized, a weekly newsletter featuring expert reporting, analysis and insight from the editors and reporters of Montana Free Press. Want to see Capitolized in your inbox every Thursday? Sign up here.
It’s been an eventful week in court for Randy Pinocci, the Public Service Commission member and Republican candidate for lieutenant governor (with ticket-mate Tanner Smith).
On April 8, a federal court judge temporarily enjoined enforcement of an administrative rule that restricts how long supporters of a political candidate can display campaign signs after an election. Pinocci challenged the law — more specifically, the Montana Department of Transportation’s application of the law to several of his supporters — more than a year ago, arguing that it imposed an unconstitutional, content-based restriction on protected political speech.
“I get a phone call that my supporter says they got a letter where the state government’s going to cross on their property without permission, seize property and then turn around and bill the property owner and myself,” Pinocci told Montana Free Press at the time. “I’ve never seen that kind of state government overreach, and keep in mind I’ve been pretty involved in politics for 30 years.”
Pinocci’s lawsuit claimed the department’s rules about campaign signs don’t meet the standard that courts use to evaluate content-based restrictions on speech: that the law must be the “least restrictive means” of advancing “a compelling government interest.”
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Pinocci and his supporters ultimately moved for a preliminary injunction blocking the rule. The court heard arguments on that motion last week, and sided with Pinocci.
That’s despite the fact that the transportation department is currently revising the rule to eliminate the expiration date on displays of political signage. U.S. District Court Judge Dana Christensen wrote that even if MDT’s new rule is adopted, the question doesn’t become moot.
“Though a preliminary injunction may be of little functionality as long as [the department] is holding up [its] end of the promise, Plaintiffs have still presented a prohibition on protected First Amendment political speech that constitutes irreparable harm,” Christensen wrote.
And given the importance of political speech to the First Amendment, it’s unlikely that MDT’s content-based restriction would pass a strict scrutiny test, he wrote.
Meanwhile, in Cascade County district court, Pinocci has been facing prosecution for alleged disorderly conduct and witness tampering related to his dispute with a tenant in Great Falls. On Tuesday, Pinocci entered into a deferred prosecution agreement, in which he conceded that there was probably cause to charge him with witness tampering, in exchange for the state dismissing the charges.
Pinocci pleaded no contest to disorderly conduct — a charge that carries a $100 fine — and the state dropped its prosecution of two felony counts of witness tampering, according to court records.
Pinocci, a hardline Republican who previously served in the state Legislature, is unable to run for re-election to the Public Service Commission because of term limits. He’s now the running mate of GOP gubernatorial candidate Smith, who is challenging incumbent Republican Gov. Greg Gianforte from the right.
This story was updated Monday, April 15, to correct a typographical error in a pronoun reference to Judge Dana Christensen.
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