II.27. Imprisonment for Debt
Text
Constitution of Montana -- Article II -- DECLARATION OF RIGHTS. Section 27. Imprisonment for debt.No person shall be imprisoned for debt except in the manner provided by law, upon refusal to deliver up his estate for the benefit of his creditors, or in cases of tort, where there is strong presumption of fraud.Mont. Const. art. II, § 27. See https://leg.mt.gov/bills/mca/title_0000/article_0020/part_0010/section_0270/0000-0020-0010-0270.html
History
Sources
Textual Precedents
1884 Proposed Montana State Constitution
Text is nearly identical to 1972 Montana State Constitution (differences italicized): No person shall be imprisoned for debt except in the manner prescribed by law, upon refusal to deliver up his estate for the benefit of his creditors, or in cases of tort, where there is strong presumption of fraud.See, e.g., Proposed 1884 Mont. Const. art. I, § 12, available at https://archive.org/details/montanaconstitutmontrich/page/4
1889 Montana State Constitution
Identical to 1972 text.See 1889 Montana Constitution, art. III, § 12, available at https://courts.mt.gov/portals/189/library/docs/1889cons.pdf
(Federal) Constitution of the United States of America
The Federal Constitution provides no similar explicit provision."Ronald K. L. Collins has noted seventeen provisions of Montana's Declaration of Rights (Article II, sections 1-35 of the Montana Constitution) that have no parallel in the Bill of Rights of the U.S. Constitution: [...] 27 (imprisonment for debt)" LARRY M. ELISON & FRITZ SNYDER, THE MONTANA STATE CONSTITUTION: A REFERENCE GUIDE 20 (G. Alan Tarr, ed., 2001)).
Contextual Precedents
Debtor's Prison Generally
Debtor's prison Montana
Indentured Servitude, Generally
Indentured Servitude, Montana
Drafting
Proposal
1972 Montana Constitutional Convention
Committee Reports: Proposal 8 Section 27.
Delegate Proposal: During the Convention, the delegation moved systematically through the proposed provisions. Mont. Const. art. II § 27 was discussed on March 9, 1972. Delegate Sullivan moved for adoption under Proposal 8,Committee proposals are found in 1 CONVENTION RECORD, at 333- 544, and 2 MONTANA CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION TRANSCRIPTS, at 547-836 (1982). which recommended the existing 1889 language be adopted without modification. Text.See Montana Constitution Verbatim Transcript 1792, available at https://courts.mt.gov/portals/189/library/mt_cons_convention/vol5.pdf
Debate
While the Committee had recommended outright re-adoption, and while no delegate proposals had been received on the provision, Delegate Joyce moved to amend the language to insert a period following "debt," deleting the remaining text. He argued that other states had simpler languageSuch as Hawaii, Alaska, and North Dakota. See Montana Constitution Verbatim Transcript 1799, available at https://courts.mt.gov/portals/189/library/mt_cons_convention/vol5.pdf, and that the remaining language was archaic and superfluous.
In discussion, the argument against amendment was simply that the law was functioning and was not problematic. Delegate Dahood: "But by leaving the section exactly as it is, we do nothing more than approve and ratify what has been done till now. That is a basic concept for interpreting the intent of constitutional revision when it is made, and that is the primary presumption that must be indulged in when a Constitutional Convention affirms the language that has been in the old Constitution and is placed within the framework of the new Constitution. I see no need to change anything." See Montana Constitution Verbatim Transcript 1798, available at https://courts.mt.gov/portals/189/library/mt_cons_convention/vol5.pdf Ultimately, the motion to amend was defeated 44 to 34, and the motion to adopt the existing 1889 language was renewed.See Montana Constitution Verbatim Transcript 1800, available at https://courts.mt.gov/portals/189/library/mt_cons_convention/vol5.pdf
Adoption
The Delegates adopted the provision unanimously thereafter. See Montana Constitution Verbatim Transcript 1800, available at https://courts.mt.gov/portals/189/library/mt_cons_convention/vol5.pdf