‘Privacy: Our Right To Be Let Alone’--
Panel on Montana’s Constitutional Right of Privacy webinar Oct. 3

‘Privacy: Our Right To Be Let Alone’ is the title of an upcoming webinar on Montana’s Constitutional Right of Privacy, at 6:30 p.m. Monday, Oct. 3.
Montana’s Right of Privacy protects women’s right of reproductive choice, as well as the privacy of Montanans’ medical records, their medical decisions, their phone conversations and much more.
The panel, co-sponsored by the Montana League of Women Voters of the Helena Area and Lewis & Clark Library, is part of a series of events the LWV is holding this year to mark the Montana Constitution’s 50th anniversary.
This webinar will provide the public a strong sense of what may be at stake in the 2023 Legislature and the efforts required to ensure these rights.
Four speakers with extensive and varied expertise on privacy rights will address Montanans’ unique state constitutional protections and current threats:
–Attorney Mae Nan (Robinson) Ellingson, a 1972 Constitutional Convention delegate, will discuss the role of state constitutions, the legal development of the right of privacy and the delegates’ decision to include an explicit Right of Privacy in the 1972 Montana Constitution;
–Retired Montana Supreme Court Justice Patricia Cotter, who served on the court 2000-2016, will address that Montanans’ right to abortion is not superseded by decisions of the U.S. Supreme Court, as well as Montana Supreme Court’s long-recognized opinions that a person’s medical decisions and medical records are private matters;
–Retired Montana Supreme Court Justice Jim Nelson, who served on the court 1993 to 2013 and is a former county prosecutor, will talk about the Montana Supreme Court’s Armstrong decision that recognizes women’s right to seek and obtain abortion services without government interference. He will also discuss its pertinence since the U.S. Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision, as well as likely legislative threats to the Montana Constitution and to citizens’ fundamental rights; and
–Trial attorney Raph Graybill, who was legal counsel for Governor Steve Bullock and the Democratic 2020 nominee for Montana Attorney General, will discuss the current landscape of privacy litigation in Montana.
To sign up for the webinar, use this link https://tinyurl.com/3dkbc6ah.
For more information, visit https://my.lwv.org/montana/local-leagues/helena.