Early last week, July 20 Montana Secretary of State Corey Stapleton filed an appeal to a judge’s decision that removed the Green Party from ballots that are set to be printed next month. Montana Green Party Coordinator Dani Breck says the party itself joined that appeal on Thursday and is optimistic the party can still be on the ballot after the Supreme Court responded Friday.

"It is a partisan decision," Breck said. "It was done in order to prevent additional choices on the ballot for the 10,000 Montanans who did sign that petition. We have filed an appeal as a party and we found out that the State Supreme Court did grant the Secretary of State's expedited briefings motion."

The expedited briefings motion means the wheels of justice will spin a bit faster. Initial paper work must be in by the end of July, with the final documents sent in just days before ballots must be printed.

"On August 16, we have to have our response back in and then the club will take all of those documents, all of those briefings and everything from the initial case that was submitted," Breck said. "They will look over everything and hopefully make a determination that we do in fact deserve to be on the ballot before August 22 when they start wanting to print ballots."

When appealing the decision by State Judge James Reynolds, Stapleton said the ruling “ignores Montana’s long established practice of inclusion in democracy.” Breck says the decision may follow the form of the law, but fails to uphold the function of the law.