Republican Attorney General Austin Knudsen has rescinded a 14-year-old legal interpretation of Montana’s legislative term limits, potentially disqualifying two GOP lawmakers from the November ballot with just days remaining before the secretary of state must certify candidates.

Knudsen issued a new opinion at the request of Senate President Matt Regier, R-Kalispell, that reinterprets how the state enforces term limits approved by voters in 1992. Under the new reading, state Representative Llew Jones, who won his June primary race for Senate District 9, would be ineligible to run for the upper chamber. House Majority Leader Steve Fitzpatrick, R-Great Falls, would face similar disqualification.

The Legal Dispute

The disagreement centers on how to measure the 16-year window within which a lawmaker may serve no more than eight years in the same chamber. Attorney General Steve Bullock issued the original 2012 opinion, which allowed a legislator to return to office if eight years had passed before the new term began. Under that interpretation, a lawmaker could serve, take a break, and return to the same chamber as long as the eight-year gap fell within any 16-year period.

Knudsen’s new opinion applies a different standard: the 16-year window includes the term for which a candidate is running, not just past service. This means earlier service counts toward the limit even if considerable time has elapsed since the legislator left office. Jones served in the House from 2009 to 2016; under Knudsen’s method, that service falls within a 16-year window that extends into 2024 and beyond, exceeding the eight-year threshold.

Knudsen argues that Bullock created an “8-year break in service” exception not found in the Constitution itself. “A candidate may file for office if, at the time the candidate begins to serve in that office, he or she will have had an 8-year break in service over a 16-year period of time,” the 2012 opinion stated, according to the attorney general’s analysis, as first reported by the Montana Free Press.

Court Challenge and Tight Timeline

Attorney Jesse A. Laslovich filed a complaint Friday in Montana’s First Judicial District Court on behalf of Fitzpatrick and Jones, seeking to uphold Bullock’s interpretation and requesting a temporary restraining order. Judge Mike Menahan had not ruled on that request as of the information available to this publication.

The timing pressure is acute. Montana’s secretary of state must certify all candidates by August 20—only nine days after Knudsen issued the opinion—leaving 75 days between certification and the November 3 general election. Jones stated he learned of his potential disqualification through a reporter’s call rather than direct notice from the attorney general’s office.

No Montana court has previously addressed this constitutional question, leaving uncertainty about how the dispute will resolve.

Republican Party Response

The Montana GOP Executive Board passed a resolution Friday supporting constitutional term limits and creating an expedited process for nominating replacement candidates if current officeholders are removed from the ballot. The move signals the party is preparing for the possibility that Knudsen’s interpretation will stand, at least through the general election cycle.

The dispute highlights the ambiguity that can persist in constitutional language even after decades of enforcement under a settled interpretation. Bullock’s opinion guided the state’s term-limits enforcement for 14 years without legal challenge. The new opinion, issued at the request of the Senate’s top Republican, reopens that settled understanding weeks before voters cast ballots.