SB 457 Montana Senate · 2025 Regular Session

Revise laws regarding legislative subpoenas

SB 457 revises the enforcement of legislative subpoenas by establishing a procedure for the legislature to address non-compliance. It allows either house or its committees to certify a witness or person for criminal contempt if they fail to appear or produce subpoenaed records. This certification occurs through a resolution while the legislature is in session, or through a poll of members when not in session. Once certified, the matter is referred to the attorney general for prosecution. The bill creates a new misdemeanor offense of criminal contempt of the legislature, punishable by a fine, imprisonment, or both.
Bill status signed all 5 stages cleared
Introduction
Feb 2025
Committee Review
Apr 2025
Senate Passage
Apr 2025
House Passage
Apr 2025
Signed into Law
May 2025
Introduced Feb 24, 2025 Signed May 8, 2025
Maddy AI version diff · 3 comparisons

What changed between versions

SB0457_X(2).pdf SB0457_X(3).pdf · 1 edit
MINOR
The bill text shows a minor formatting adjustment where a period was removed from the end of the summary line. This change does not alter the bill's legal content, scope, or policy intent.
TECHNICAL

Removed a trailing period from the end of the bill title line, which is a non-substantive formatting correction.

Floor votes · Senate Mar 6, 2025 · House Apr 11, 2025

How they voted

3119
Passed
Total votes 50
Mar 6, 2025
D Democratic18
18 Nay
100% Nay
R Republican32
31 Yea 1 Nay
96% Yea
Vote distribution
All Yea All Nay Mixed No data
Full legislative history

Actions timeline

Total actions
41
Key actions
8
Committee
6
May 5, 2025
Introduced
(S) Filed with Secretary of State
upper
Apr 25, 2025
Lower · Passed
(H) Signed by Speaker
lower
Apr 21, 2025
Upper · Passed
(S) Signed by President
upper
Apr 11, 2025
House · Passed
House Vote: pass (55-44-1)
house
Apr 9, 2025
Lower · Passed
(H) Committee Report - (H) Judiciary
lower
Apr 9, 2025
Lower · Passed
(H) Committee Executive Action - (H) Judiciary
lower
Mar 7, 2025
Committee
(H) Referred to Committee - (H) Judiciary
lower
Mar 6, 2025
Senate · Passed
Senate Vote: pass (31-19)
senate
Mar 3, 2025
Upper · Passed
(S) Committee Report - (S) Judiciary
upper
Mar 3, 2025
Upper · Passed
(S) Committee Executive Action - (S) Judiciary
upper
Feb 25, 2025
Committee
(S) Referred to Committee - (S) Judiciary
upper
Feb 24, 2025
Introduced
(S) Introduced
upper
1 primary · 0 co-sponsors

Sponsors

Role
Legislator
Party
State
District
P
Photo of Sue Vinton
Sue Vinton
RRepublican
MT
20