11 October 2022 — 1407 mdt

ERIK B. THUESON
Attorney at Law
Clancy, MT

October 1, 2022
Mr. James E. Brown
P. O. Box  REDACTED 
Helena, MT

Dear Mr. Brown,

I received your solicitation for a contribution for your run for the Montana Supreme Court, which you apparently have sent out to all Montana lawyers. After reviewing your record, however, I must decline. Quite frankly, I do not believe you are qualified.

First, I don’t see where you have established a reputation as an attorney or legal scholar. As you are aware, we have a small Montana legal community, and we pretty much know who the leading lawyers and judges are and what they have accomplished. Even though we both practice in Helena, however, I have never heard of you until you decided to run.

To see if I was missing something, I checked the leading peer-review service, Martindale-Hubbard. I consider it the only valid and reliable rating system because it is based upon the honest opinions of both judges and lawyers about their colleagues (It does not grant self-serving ratings paid for by the lawyer in question like others do). As you know, lawyers are rated according to their skills and ethics, with the most qualified receiving “AV” ratings and the less qualified receiving “B” ratings or less. I was surprised to see, however, that you have no rating at all—despite practicing in Montana for a decade and one-half!

I next searched for your name in legal data bases like Fastcase and Westlaw to learn what cases you have appeared on. I found out you have appeared only a few times before the Montana Supreme Court and in the scheme of things, none of your cases were significant. Obviously, you have made appearances in the lower courts, but again, I have found nothing to indicate your cases were of high significance and therefore reported. I saw nothing indicating you have tried a significant lawsuit to a Montana jury.

Based on this evidence, I concluded you have not established yourself in our legal community as either a significant advocate or legal scholar. This would not completely disqualify you to serve as a judge, but it certainly is a major point against you.

Of greater concern, however, is what I found out about you in the non-legal arena — specifically the political arena. I learned you are a corporate lobbyist and partisan political operative. There is, of course, a place for this in the political legislative and executive branches, but not on our Montana Supreme Court, which by definition and necessity, must be non-partisan and non-political.

I should not need to lecture a lawyer on why our Court must be independent from politics. It essentially referees the political parties in the other two branches of government, calling foul when they create laws which violate our Constitution or favor corporations over the rights and interests of individual Montanans. A corporate lobbyist and political operative cannot possibly be a fair referee. It would be like putting a fox in the hen house. It would, at a minimum, create the impression that our government is fixed.

But my greatest concern arose when I learned you were the lawyer for Western Traditions Partnership, Inc., the most notorious corrupter of Montana politics in modern times. As was determined in the case of Western Traditions Partnership, Inc. v. Bullock, 2011 MT 328, this “foreign corporation” was created “to solicit and anonymously spend the funds of other corporations, individuals and entities to influence the outcome of Montana elections.” It informed its anonymous wealthy donors they were “not required to report [their] names or the amount of any contributions…. [They could] just sit back on election night and see what a difference [they had] made.” I realize, everyone is entitled to an attorney, but I cannot believe an attorney, who voluntarily chooses to represent a corporation with the express purpose of corrupting Montana’s government through “dark money” can qualify for a seat on our Supreme Court.

As you know, you appeared as Western Traditions’ spokesperson in the PBS Frontline documentary, “Big Sky, Big Money,” which can be viewed at https://www.pbs.orgiwgbh/frontlineiarticlefdark-money-groups-donors-revealed/. Frontline exposed your client as an out-of-state corporation that had corrupted Montana’s government through millions of dollars of “dark money.” Both Republicans and Democrats testified how Western had undermined their campaigns through slanderous campaign ads and mailers. The Commission on Political Practices discussed how its investigation revealed Western was basically a corrupt organization of liars. It was nothing more than a post office address in Colorado which served as a front and cover for anonymous “big money” out-of-state corporations and extremely wealthy individuals who wanted to control our government so they could carve up Montana.

When Frontline questioned you about Western’s wealthy anonymous donors and why they were so intent on corrupting Montana’s politics, you evaded their questions. This is the direct opposite of what I would expect from a person who would later ask Montanans to put him on our highest court which is charged with protecting Montana—not exploiting it.

It is for these reasons that I must steadfastly oppose your candidacy. I wish you well in any other endeavor but believe it would be a very sad day for Montana if you were to gain a seat on our Court.

Sincerely yours,

Erik B. Thueson