On March 7, the Montana Commissioner of Political Practices issued his decision in In the Matter of the Complaint Against the Canyon Ferry Road Baptist Church. Yesterday the Baptist Press reported on the case which held that an East Helena Baptist Church violated Montana campaign finance and practices laws and regulations by its activities in support of a 2004 ballot measure prohibiting gay marriage. The decision held that the Church should have filled out paperwork to report itself as an "incidental political committee". The opinion said: "Use of the church’s facilities to obtain signatures on CI-96 petitions, along with Pastor Stumberg’s encouragement of persons to sign the CI-96 petitions during regularly scheduled church services, obviously had value to the campaign in support of CI-96."
Alliance Defense Fund attorney Gary McCaleb claims the law unconstitutionally infringes on religious expression and free speech. He said: "It has a chilling effect on a church's speech. It means [the church] has to register with the state and jump through a bunch of election-law-reporting hoops merely for putting a few pieces of paper out in the foyer. It's a pretty outrageous extension of election law into the free speech realm."
