OAN’s Brooke Mallory
1:50 AM – Thursday, November 30, 2023
Following the lawmaker’s censure in April, Democrat state representative Zooey Zephyr, a biological male who identifies as a transgender female, filed a lawsuit against the state’s House of Representatives. However, it was dismissed by a Montana judge on Tuesday, according to court documents.
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On April 26th, Zephyr received disciplinary action from House officials for violating parliamentary procedure. A few days earlier, Zephyr supported protesters by holding up a microphone in support of those who had been arrested during the rally. For allegedly violating Zephyr’s “right to free speech,” the transgender lawmaker filed a lawsuit against Republican state House Speaker Matt Regier (R-Mont.) and the House’s Sergeant of Arms Bradley Murfitt.
However, according to court documents, District Judge Mike Menahan argued that the legislature actually does have the right and authority to discipline members who break the rules.
“Article V, Section 10 of the Montana Constitution provides the Legislature the authority to discipline its members,” Menahan wrote. “Unlike in Ramon, where the court found an answer would ‘benefit Montana law enforcement officers by providing authoritative guidance on an unsettled issue regarding their authority,’ the Legislature’s disciplinary authority is not an unsettled issue.”
A bill that would have prohibited physicians from giving cross-sex hormones to adolescents was the subject of the protests. Zephyr said during a state House floor discussion that anyone who supported the proposed law would have “blood on [their] hands.”
In the 28-page lawsuit, Zephyr claimed that by forbidding discussion, the decision to censure “unlawfully silenced [Zephyr].”
However, according to Menahan, Zephyr’s case was “moot” because the censure time had ended and Zephyr had acknowledged that the censure was extremely uncommon and hence unlikely to occur again.
Furthermore, he disregarded the notion that Zephyr’s censure would affect how members carry out their responsibilities since the legislature had the authority to punish elected people for their questionable actions.
The judge’s ruling successfully upheld the “rule of law,” according to Emily Flower, a spokesman for the Montana Attorney General’s Office, the defendants’ legal representative.
“The plaintiffs failed in their attempt to inject the court into legislative affairs and thwart the democratic process,” Flower said. “The decisions in this case rightly upheld the Montana Constitution’s separation of powers and the rule of law.”
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