Flathead County District Court Judge Amy Eddy, the latest to join the race for an open seat on the Montana Supreme Court, has promised her campaign will eschew partisan politics.

"Montanans deserve a Supreme Court justice who is fair, impartial and independent,” wrote Eddy in a May 6 press release announcing her bid to replace outgoing Justice Beth Baker. “On the Supreme Court, I will protect our freedoms, guard our constitution, hold criminals accountable and apply the law fairly. I believe deeply that we must keep politics out of the courtroom.” 

Eddy said she plans to maintain the state precedence for nonpartisan judicial campaigns despite recent legislative efforts to introduce more direct partisan politics into the process.  

In March, the governor signed a bill that removed a longstanding ban on direct financial contributions from political parties to judicial candidates. Eddy said the new law is at odds with her own nonpartisan campaign ethics as well as the Montana Code of Judicial Conduct, which prohibits judicial candidates from participating in activities “inconsistent with the independence, integrity, or impartiality of the judiciary.” 

“I have no intention of accepting money from any party,” said Eddy. “While it may be lawful, it is not judicial. That, to me, does not embody a nonpartisan campaign.” 

Eddy’s entry into the race pits her against fellow District Court Judge Dan Wilson, who launched his campaign for the seat in early April. 

Eddy comes to the table with 25 years of courtroom experience. After graduating from the University of Montana School of Law in 2001, she worked as a trial attorney in Kalispell, specializing in civil cases such as personal injury claims. In 2015, she was appointed to the bench for Montana’s 11th District Court and was subsequently reelected in 2016, 2018 and 2024. 

In addition to her District Court duties, Eddy oversaw the state’s Asbestos Claims Court for several years. The volunteer position primarily involved claims related to a vermiculite mine outside of Libby, which was found to contain an especially harmful form of asbestos in the 1990s. 

“I’m really just exceptionally proud of that work and that period of my career,” Eddy said. “We really just put an astronomical effort in.” 

In terms of her constitutional philosophy, Eddy said she embraces the idea of judicial constraint and respects the separation of power between the three branches of government. But her viewpoint also allows for a somewhat flexible interpretation of the constitution as a living document. 

“You have to start with the text of the constitution, the structure of the constitution, but it doesn’t stop there,” she said. 

She summarized her perspective by paraphrasing a quote from Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter: "It is an inadmissibly narrow conception of American constitutional law to confine it to the words of the Constitution and to disregard the gloss which life has written upon them." 

Eddy shied away from taking a specific stance on some of the key issues the Montana Supreme Court is expected to review in the coming years, including abortion, voters’ rights and environmental regulation. She did nod at a few of the precedents the state recently set, including CI-128, which added abortion protections to the state constitution. 

“We have a lot of precedents in this state in these areas,” she said. “Precedence is a promise of constancy.” 

Reporter Hailey Smalley may be reached at 758-4433 or [email protected].