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CONSTITUTION

OF THE

STATE OF MONTANA,

AS ADOPTED BY THE CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION, HELD AT HELENA, COMMENCING JULY

4, 1889, AND ENDING AUGUST

17, 1889.

RATIFIED BY THE PEOPLE, OCTOBER 1, 1889.

PREAMBLE.

E, the people of Montana, grateful to Almighty God for

WE

the blessings of liberty, in order to secure the advantages of a State government, do, in accordance with the provisions of the Enabling Act of Congress, approved the twentysecond of February, A. D. 1889, ordain and establish this Constitution.

CONSTITUTION.

ARTICLE I.

BOUNDARIES.

SECTION 1. The boundaries of the State of Montana shall be as follows, to-wit: Beginning at a point formed by the intersection of the twenty-seventh degree of longitude west from Washington with the forty-fifth degree of north latitude, thence due west on the forty-fifth degree of latitude to a point formed by its intersection with the thirty-fourth degree of longitude west from Washington, thence due south along the thirty-fourth degree of longitude, to a point formed by its intersection with the crest of the Rocky Mountains, thence following the crest of the Rocky Mountains northward to its intersection with the Bitter Root Mountains; thence northward along the crest of the Bitter Root Mountains, to its intersection with the thirty-ninth degree of longitude west from Washington; thence along the thirty-ninth degree of longitude northward to the boundary line of the British Possessions; thence eastward along that boundary line to the twenty..seventh degree of longitude west from Washington; thence southward along the twenty-seventh degree of longitude to the place of beginning.

ARTICLE II.

MILITARY RESERVATIONS.

SECTION 1. Authority is hereby granted to and acknowledged in the United States to exercise exclusive legislation as provided by the Constitution of the United States, over the military reservations of Fort Assinaboine, Fort Custer, Fort Keogh, Fort Maginnis, Fort Missoula and Fort Shaw, as now established by law, so long as said places remain military reservations, to the same extent and with the same effect as if said reservations had been purchased by the United States by consent of the Legislative Assembly of the State of Montana; and the Legislative Assembly is authorized and directed to enact any law necessary or proper to give effect to this article.

Provided, That there be and is hereby reserved to the State the right to serve all legal process of the State, both civil and criminal, upon persons and property found within any of said reservations in all cases where the United States has not exclusive jurisdiction.

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ARTICLE III.

A DECLARATION OF RIGHTS OF THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF MONTANA.

SECTION 1. All political power is vested in and derived from the people; all government of right originates with the people; is founded upon their will only and is instituted solely for the good of the whole.

SEO. 2. The people of the State have the sole and exclusive right of governing themselves, as a free, sovereign and independent State, and to alter and abolish their Constitution and form of government. whenever they may deem it necessary to their safety and happiness, provided such change be not repugnant to the Constitution of the United States.

SEC. 3. All persons are born equally free, and have certain natural, essential and inalienable rights, among which may be reckoned the right of enjoying and defending their lives and liberties, of acquiring possessing and protecting property, and of seeking and obtaining their safety and happiness in all lawful ways.

SEC. 4. The free exercise and enjoyment of religious profession and worship, without discrimination, shall forever hereafter be guaranteed, and no person shall be denied any civil or political right or privilege on account of his opinions concerning religion, but the liberty of conscience hereby secured shall not be construed to dispense with oaths or affirmations, excuse acts of licentiousness, by bigamous or polygamous marriage, or otherwise, or justify practices inconsistent with the good order, peace or safety of the State, or opposed to the civil authority thereof, or of the United States. No person shall be required to attend any place of worship or support any ministry, religious sect or denomination, against his consent; nor shall any preference be given by law to any religious denomination or mode of worship.

SEC. 5. All elections shall be free and open, and no power, civil or military, shall at any time interfere to prevent the free exercise of the right of suffrage.

SEC. 6. Courts of justice shall be open to every person, and a speedy remedy afforded for every injury of person, property or character; and that right and justice shall be administered without sale, denial or delay

SEC. 7. The people shall be secure in their persons, papers, homes and effects, from unreasonable searches and seizures, and no warrant to search any place or seize any person or thing shall issue without describing the place to be searched, or the person or thing to be seized, nor without probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, reduced to writing.

SEC. 8. Criminal offenses of which justices' courts and municipal and other courts, inferior to the district courts, have jurisdiction, shall, in all courts inferior to the district court, be prosecuted by complaint. All criminal actions in the district court, except those on appeal, shall be prosecuted by information, after examination and commitment, by a magistrate, or after leave granted by the court, or shall be prosecuted by indictment without such examination or commitment, or without such leave of the court. A grand jury shall consist of seven persons, of whom five must concur to find an indictment.

A grand jury shall only be drawn and summoned when the district judge shall in his discretion consider it necessary, and shall so order.

SEO. 9. Treason against the State shall consist only in levying war against

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it, or in adhering to its enemies, giving them aid and comfort; no person shall be convicted of treason except on the testimony of two witnesses to the same overt act, or on his confession in open court; no person shall be attainted of treason or felony by the Legislative Assembly; no conviction shall work corruption of blood or forfeiture of estate; the estates of persons who may destroy their own lives shall descend or vest as in cases of natural death.

SEC. 10. No law shall be passed impairing the freedom of speech; every person shall be free to speak, write or publish whatever he will on any subject, being responsible for all abuse of that liberty; and that in all suits and prosecutions for libel, the truth thereof may be given in evidence; and the jury, under the direction of the court, shall determine the law and the facts.

SEC. 11. No ex post facto law, nor law impairing the obligation of contracts, or making any irrevocable grant of special privileges, franchises or immunities shall be passed by the Legislative Assembly.

SEO. 12. No person shall be imprisoned for debt except in the manner prescribed by law, upon refusal to deliver up his estate for the benefit of his creditors, or in cases of tort, where there is strong presumption of fraud.

SEO. 13. The right of any person to keep or bear arms in defense of his own home, person and property, or in aid of the civil power when thereto legally summoned, shall not be called in question, but nothing herein contained shall be held to permit the carrying of concealed weapons.

SEC. 14. Private property shall not be taken or damaged for public use without just compensation having been first made to, or paid into court for the

owner.

SEO. 15. The use of all water now appropriated, or that may hereafter be appropriated for sale, rental, distribution or other beneficial use, and the right of way over the lands of others, for all ditches, drains, flumes, canals and aqueducts, necessarily used in connection therewith, as well as the sites for reservoirs necessary for collecting and storing the same, shall be held to be a public use. Private roads may be opened in the manner to be prescribed by law, but in every case the necessity of the road, and the amount of all damage to be sustained by the opening thereof, shall be first determined by a jury, and such amount together with the expenses of the proceeding shall be paid by the person to be benefited.

SEC. 16. In all criminal prosecutions the accused shall have the right to appear and defend in person and by counsel; to demand the nature and cause of the accusation; to meet the witnesses against him face to face; to have process to compel the attendance of witnesses in his behalf, and a speedy public trial by an impartial jury of the county or district in which the offense is alleged to have been committed, subject to the right of the State to have a change of venue for any of the causes for which the defendant may obtain the

same.

SEO. 17. No person shall be imprisoned for the purpose of securing his testimony in any criminal proceeding longer than may be necessary in order to take his deposition. If he can give security for his appearance at the time of trial he shall be discharged upon giving the same; if he cannot give security, his deposition shall be taken in the manner prescribed by law, and in the presence of the accused and his counsel, or without their presence, if they shall fail to attend the examination after reasonable notice of the time and place thereof.

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