state of Montana

Rep. Zooey Zephyr, the transgender

Montana

lawmaker who remained silent after telling Republicans they would have blood on their hands for resisting gender affirmation

healthcare healthcare

for children, cannot yet return to the floor of the state house and participate in the debate, a judge ruled Tuesday.

The ruling came after Montana state attorneys asked the judge to dismiss

transgender

Zephyr’s attempt to return after being silenced and subsequently banned for admonishing Republican lawmakers and encouraging a raucous protest in the state House.

Lawyers work under

Attorney General Att. Gene.

Austin Knudsen warned that any intervention by the courts on Zephyr’s behalf would be a flagrant violation of the separation of powers. They wrote in a lawsuit that the Montana House of Representatives retains exclusive constitutional authority to discipline its own members.

Attorneys for Zephyr and some of her constituents in Missoula filed court documents Monday seeking an emergency order allowing her to return to the House floor for the final days of the 2023 legislative session.

Transgender Montana MP fights through first day of exile

Zephyr and fellow Democrats have denounced her exclusion from floor debates as an attack on free speech designed to silence her criticism of new restrictions on gender-affirming care for minors.

But state attorneys said Zephyr’s censure by her Republican colleagues was a good thing” after the April 24 demonstration by her supporters.

No one lawmaker should interfere with the ability of the other 99 to participate in a civil, orderly debate on issues affecting Montana, the state’s attorneys wrote.

GOP leaders under pressure from hard conservatives initially silenced Zephyr from taking part in floor debates and demanded she apologize nearly two weeks ago after saying those who supported a ban on gender-affirming care for young people put blood on their would have hands.

Transgender MP Silenced by Republican House Speaker in Montana

On April 24, Zephyr defiantly raised a microphone on the House floor when protesters in the gallery demanded she be allowed to speak and refused orders to leave. Seven people were arrested on trespassing charges, and two days later lawmakers along party lines voted to evict Zephyr from the floor and bleachers for the rest of the session.

She has worked from a bench in a hallway and, when occupied, in a statehouse snack bar.

The actions against Zephyr propelled her forward

in

to political prominence and took her part in broader conversations about dampening dissent in state houses. But in Montana, Republicans hope to capitalize on their high profile by painting the Democrats as a party of extremists heading into the next election.

The lawsuit to have her sentence overturned was filed by lawyers representing the

Montana ACLU American Civil Liberties Union of Montana.

It names House Speaker Matt Regier and Sergeant-at-Arms Brad Murfitt as defendants.

Of course, the house is free to censor any of its own members and it is of course free to set rules, said Alex Rate, legal director of Montana ACLU. But it’s the job of the court to make sure those rules are in line with the constitution.