News From St Elsewhere

According to the editorial page of the Billings' Gazette, 16 June 2011, our Montana Supreme Court has refused to take over the job of the legislative branch, thus supporting our state constitution, but also revealing a potentially exploitable weakness in that same constitution. Six Montana attorneys noted that our state constitution, probably written by their parents, has a part which could suggest that the constitution obligates the state to "regulate greenhouse gases in the atmosphere," or at least so they assert. How convenient. How did they know? I guess this is an example of what that eminent constitutional scholar, Barack Obama, calls "a charter of positive rather than negative liberties." Maybe we do need a new constitution here in Montana.