Several Republican judicial reform bills got initial approval Thursday in the first test of the party's legislative priority, albeit with inconsistent measures of GOP support.

Montana Secretary of State Christi Jacobsen argues that only lawmakers have sway over state elections under the U.S. Constitution. She asked the justices to consider the case after the state’s highest court struck down laws ending same-day voter registration and prohibiting paid ballot collection.

On Thursday, the Montana House and Senate voted on seven Republican-sponsored bills that would make changes to the state’s judicial branch and legal system.

Montana Secretary of State Christi Jacobsen argues that only lawmakers have sway over state elections under the U.S. Constitution. She asked the justices to consider the case after the state’s highest court struck down laws ending same-day voter registration and prohibiting paid ballot collection.

Senate President Matt Regier said he has “very, very serious concerns” about the contract arrangement. "The more you look at it, the deeper it's getting.”

The former Republican state Senate president denied Friday any wrongdoing in connection with a $170,000 no-bid contract he signed in his final days in office, an expenditure that is now under scrutiny by new Senate leadership.

Montana’s House is has endorsed a ban on transgender people using bathrooms in public buildings that don’t align with their sex assigned at birth.

On Thursday morning, the Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing on one of the most prominent in a Republican-sponsored suite of bills that would overhaul Montana’s judicial branch.

The Supreme Court has turned back an election law case out of Montana that relied on a controversial legal theory with the potential to change the way elections are run across the country

The legislative GOP misleadingly calls the 27 draft bills they passed through their partisan judiciary attack committee “judicial reform.”

The Supreme Court declined an election law case that relied on a controversial legal theory with the potential to change how elections run.

Yellowstone County commissioners are offering the use of MetraPark to detain illegal immigrants caught in the region following President Trump's orders to increase deportations.