Michael F McMahon

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Judge Michael "Mike" McMahon serves as a judge on the Montana 1st Judicial District Court

Info from Other Sources:

• According to the Independent Record, Judge McMahon said he was running to do "the right thing" as a justice. He explained, "I think it's important that all judges have direction from the Supreme Court that they can rely upon… And that's my goal is to make sure if I'm elected to continue that process that Chief Justice (Mike) McGrath and the other justices have, in my view, maintained to a large extent. Maybe not a complete extent, but to a large extent." McMahon identifies as a "strict constructionist." McMahon said he ran against Gustafson rather than Rice because he tended to aligned more with Justice Rice. He commented, "When I read his decisions, I see a lot that I like from a standpoint of, let's say, the stricter construction, if that's fair to say. That's not saying Justice Gustafson is not. Just analyzing their respective decisions, I see a difference." On his judicial philosophy in comparison with Gustafson's, McMahon said, "Some will think that our judicial philosophies are different. I guess that's up to the voters to decide what type of judicial philosophy they want on the court."
  
• In differentiating himself from Justice Gustafson, McMahon said he aligned more with Justice Rice and that “It’s not a matter of me versus her. It’s a matter of, in my view, what do the Montana voters, what kind of Supreme Court justice do they want. And I’ve laid out, I think I’m conservative and I use common sense.” McMahon also said he doesn’t see himself as a candidate who is out to 'save the judiciary.' He said his motivation was to apply the law the best way he knew how, regardless of personal ideology or partisan politics. "People will say things about me, about my decisions. I mean, I had a brother tell me, 'My God, Mike, you’ve pissed off the Republicans and you’ve pissed off the Democrats. There’s only going to be 16 people that vote for you,'" McMahon said. 'I look at that and say, well, I guess I’m doing my job.'"
• McMahon struck down portions of a "constitutional carry" law that applied to college campuses.
• McMahon was criticized when it was revealed that he knew the victim in one of his cases and his sentence was found by a higher court to be "clearly excessive." McMahon responded that critics were "misinformed" about the case and that he was not aware of any complaint sent to the Judicial Standards Commission, the body responsible for sanctioning judges. McMahon said he was prepared for whatever happened during the election-- "You know, labels have been put on a lot of judges, especially me. I was raised to turn the other cheek. … I think I was called an activist, a judicial activist, on one case and then, you know, two cases later they're applauding. That's just the nature of the game."
• The Daily Montanan said that both Judge McMahon and Justice Gustafson "eschew political labels" and "resisted direct philosophical comparisons with their opponent, each pointing to a broad array of their own experiences as a judge and attorney."