Montana Code 13-35-503. Policy
13-35-503. Policy. (1) It is policy of the state of Montana that each elected and appointed official in Montana, whether acting on a state or federal level, advance the philosophy that corporations are not human beings with constitutional rights and that each such elected and appointed official is charged to act to prohibit, whenever possible, corporations from making contributions to or expenditures on the campaigns of candidates or ballot issues. As part of this policy, each such elected and appointed official in Montana is charged to promote actions that accomplish a level playing field in election spending.
Terms Used In Montana Code 13-35-503
- Ballot: means a paper ballot counted manually or a paper ballot counted by a machine, such as an optical scan system or other technology that automatically tabulates votes cast by processing the paper ballots. See Montana Code 13-1-101
- Election: means a general, special, or primary election held pursuant to the requirements of state law, regardless of the time or purpose. See Montana Code 13-1-101
- Property: means real and personal property. See Montana Code 1-1-205
- State: when applied to the different parts of the United States, includes the District of Columbia and the territories. See Montana Code 1-1-201
- United States: includes the District of Columbia and the territories. See Montana Code 1-1-201
(2)When carrying out the policy under subsection (1), Montana’s elected and appointed officials are generally directed as follows:
(a)that the people of Montana regard money as property, not speech;
(b)that the people of Montana regard the rights under the United States Constitution as rights of human beings, not rights of corporations;
(c)that the people of Montana regard the immense aggregation of wealth that is accumulated by corporations using advantages provided by the government to be corrosive and distorting when used to advance the political interests of corporations;
(d)that the people of Montana intend that there should be a level playing field in campaign spending that allows all individuals, regardless of wealth, to express their views to one another and their government; and
(e)that the people of Montana intend that a level playing field in campaign spending includes limits on overall campaign expenditures and limits on large contributions to or expenditures for the benefit of any campaign by any source, including corporations, individuals, or political committees.