A version of this story first appeared in 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.
ACLU of Montana lobbyist Henry Seaton received an email at 9:35 a.m. on July 18 informing him of the end of his term on the Montana Criminal Justice Oversight Council.
“The Governor has appointed Jessica Flint as the representative for civil rights organizations,” wrote Lt. Gov. Kristen Juras, who thanked Seaton for his service. Flint is a state government relations manager at Alliance Defending Freedom, a conservative legal organization that “advances every person’s God-given right to live and speak the truth.”
When he got the message, Seaton had just gotten off a call with criminal justice advocacy organizations to discuss policy. He said he was disappointed to see the lieutenant governor’s email.
“This was not expected,” Seaton said in a recent interview with Capitolized. “The correspondence I received from Juras was less than a week before the [council’s] next meeting.”
Seaton also noted the dismissal was retroactive; the email said Flint’s term started July 1.
Newly elected council Chair Sen. Barry Usher, R-Laurel, said he wasn’t aware of the change in membership until the July 23 meeting. But Usher said he thinks “ADF is a great organization.”
“It’s the governor’s choice and if the governor feels it’s a good fit, I’m OK with it,” Usher said in an interview with Capitolized.
The governor’s press secretary, Kaitlin Price, wrote in an email to Capitolized that ADF has a “long history of advocacy surrounding civil rights, civil liberties, and other constitutional rights.”
“The governor believes including ADF will bring a fresh perspective to the council,” Price wrote.
Flint, wife of Billings-based conservative talk radio host Aaron Flint, introduced herself and her organization at the July 23 CJOC meeting with a reference to the Colorado baker who refused to make cakes for a same-sex couple and to mark the celebration of a gender transition.
“We’ve seen laws that criminalize and punish people, like one of our clients, Jack Phillips in Colorado, and the complaint against him came with fines and jail times,” Flint said, referencing the criminal justice tie-ins to her appointment.
Jail time was not a possible outcome in either suit.
Seven Democratic legislators and 15 Montana advocacy organizations, including policy think tanks and civil rights advocates, signed onto a letter from Disability Rights Montana criticizing the governor’s decision to appoint “a national religious advocacy organization with no record of criminal justice reform work in Montana or elsewhere, to replace the ACLU of Montana, one of Montana’s most prominent and experienced civil rights organizations.”
ADF did not respond to requests for comment.
The oversight council is an interbranch entity that includes legislators, judges, attorneys, sheriffs, state agencies and nonprofits. The council meets outside of the legislative session to discuss, consider and formulate policy.
The governor appoints some members of the commission, with the rest selected by legislative leadership, the chief justice of the Montana Supreme Court and the state attorney general. The head of the state Department of Corrections also sits on the commission.
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