The Montana "Transparent Election Initiative": Part 2

Can Montana restrict campaign spending by out of state corporations?

In the previous post, I noted that The Center for American Progress and a group of Montana politicians are trying to undo Citizens United by amending the state constitution to limit the scope of corporate powers. In that post, I discussed whether Montana can define the powers of corporations incorporated under Montana law. As a matter of corporate law, the answer is clearly “yes.” I’m more skeptical of the constitutionality of doing so, but I concede that that’s a question at the outer margins of my expertise.

The Montana "Transparent Election Initiative": Part 1

In this post, I take up the question of whether Montana can regulate the powers of corporations incorporated in other states. This is the critical question. After all, in the scheme of American corporation law, Montana is a bit player. From my search results, I found a list of just 7 public companies headquartered in Montana: Glacier Bank (Kalispell), FICO (Bozeman), First Interstate Bank (Billings), Snowflake (Bozeman), Bridger Aerospace (Belgrade), Xtant Medical (Belgrade), and Opportunity Bank of Montana (Helena). Of those seven, six—FICO, First Interstate, Snowflake, Bridget Aerospace, Xtant Medical, and Opportunity Bank—are all incorporated in Delaware. So even if the initiative passes it will apply to exactly one public corporation. In the totality of America’s corporate economy, that’s not even a rounding error. If the initiative is to matter, Montana must be able to limit the scope of powers possessed by non-Montana corporations.

Can it?