Montana Viewpoint: The Constitution is not window dressing
Jim Elliott
Just a reminder to the Department of Justice: "A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed."
The immediate and official government response to the killing of Veterans Administration nurse Alex Pretti was that his killing was justified because he had a gun.
"I don't know of any peaceful protester that shows up with a gun and ammunition rather than a sign," said Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.
Her statement was backed up by Kash Patel, head of the FBI: “As Kristi said, you cannot bring a firearm loaded with multiple magazines to any sort of protest that you want. It's that simple."
These were the opinions of the current administration until they realized that they had taken an incredibly unpopular stance. Previous Democratic administrations also got in hot water with gun owners. Ruby Ridge and the Waco travesties come to mind.
In response, Erich Pratt, Senior Vice President of Gun Owners of America, said on CNN, "I have attended protest rallies while armed, and no one got injured."
And in the District of Columbia, United States Attorney Jennine Pirro warned, “I don’t care if you have a license in another district, and I don’t care if you’re a law-abiding gun owner somewhere else, you bring a gun into this district, count on going to jail,” (I have a Montana permit to carry a concealed weapon, but I will not be going to “the District” with or without a pistol.)
Another reminder to the Department of Justice: The Elections Clause: Article I, Section 4, Clause 1: “The Times, Places and Manner of holding Elections for Senators and Representatives, shall be prescribed in each State by the Legislature thereof; but the Congress may at any time by Law make or alter such Regulations, except as to the Places of choosing Senators.”
The clause does not mention the President or Federal agencies as having any jurisdiction whatsoever, but this doesn’t seem to matter.
The Department of Justice has ordered states to turn over complete voter records, including drivers license information and the last four digits of social security numbers to the feds for verification of voters’ citizenship status. Some states have complied; others have sent redacted voter information. And at least one state, Arizona, has told the DOJ to “pound sand.” Montana may or may not have sent complete information to the DOJ.
It’s hard to know because of conflicting stories from the Secretary of State’s office, according to a story in Montana Free Press to which I am a contributor. You can find the story at montanafreepress.org. I also do business with the Secretary of State’s office.
On January 28, 2026, in Fulton County, Georgia, the FBI showed up in full tactical gear (but no masks) to seize complete 2020 voting records—including ballots—from the Fulton County Elections Office. Fulton is one of the Georgia counties in which Atlanta is situated. The original warrant listed the wrong location to be searched so the FBI had to wait while the warrant was amended before they could execute it. I don’t know about you, but that does not give me a lot of confidence in the FBI.
In this case, the FBI took 700 boxes of election materials, including the original ballots, raising the possibility that the ballot choices of some individual voters could be discovered. There was no documentation by the FBI of what documents were taken.
There is no way of documenting what was taken.
“We do not know where our election records have been taken or what will happen to them now that they are out of our control,” said Fulton County Chairman Robb Pitts.
“Even if they give us the records back, we still don’t know if they lost records or deleted records because there was no inventory, there was no orderly transition of these files,” said Fulton County Commissioner Marvin Arrington, Jr.
The warrants were sealed by the issuing judge, but in the last couple of days a federal judge for the District of Georgia ordered the warrants unsealed by Tuesday, February 10. The judge, J. P. Boulee, was appointed by President Trump. Interestingly, Tulsi Gabbard, Director of National Intelligence, was present at the raid.
Stay tuned for more Constitutional window dressing capers.