On August 10, the Ninth Circuit issued an opinion in Pierce v Jacobsen, 21-35173. The opinion strikes down Montana’s ban on out-of-state circulators for initiative petitions (Montana has never banned out-of-state circulators for other types of petition).

The plaintiffs had also challenged Montana’s ban on paying circulators on a per-signature basis. The decision declined to strike down that ban. It says the ban may be unconstitutional, but plaintiffs didn’t present enough evidence to justify striking it down. See footnote eleven, which says, “We do not hold that pay-per-signature restrictions are per se constitutional.” The opinion also mentions that Montana allows groups that sponsor initiative petition to pay bonuses to circulators who have a good validity rate. Thanks to ElectionLawBlog for this news.