The COVID Project
The record
- Jurisdiction
- Montana
- Level
- State
- Authority
- Mont. Code Ann. Title 50, ch. 1, part 1 (General Provisions)
- Issued
- 2026-09-28 Sept. 28, 2026
- Effective
- standing (read as 2026-09-28)
- End
- standing
- In force
- Standing since Sept. 28, 2026 (a statutory duty; in force throughout the six quarters)
- Quarters
- 2020 Q22020 Q32020 Q42021 Q12021 Q22021 Q3
2020 Q22020 Q32020 Q42021 Q12021 Q22021 Q3
- Limitation types
- Standing duty
- Addressees
- persons generally; employers; owners or persons in control of premises; all businesses
- Character
- order penalty
- Collection
- Standing duties: Montana DUT-MT
Operative words
(1) Either the county attorney... or the department may bring an action necessary to abate, restrain, or prosecute the violation of public health laws. (2)... the department may, through the attorney general or appropriate county attorney, sue in district court to enjoin any violation of the public health laws, rules, or orders adopted or issued under the public health laws...
Penalty
Injunction in district court; 'abate, restrain, or prosecute'; the criminal penalties are supplied by 50-1-104 (misdemeanor for violating a department rule with no specified penalty), 50-1-204 (quarantine fine) and 50-2-124(2) (misdemeanor, up to $500 and 90 days, each day a separate offense)
What it required
This is the enforcement section every Directive of 2020 invoked: each recited that it 'constitutes a "public health... order" within the meaning of § 50-1-103(2), MCA, and is enforceable by the Attorney General, DPHHS, a county attorney, or other local authorities under the direction of a county attorney' (Ex. MT-009 sec. II; MT-013; MT-016 sec. 5; MT-018), so that every Directive's closure, distancing, capacity and face-covering condition was a public health order enforceable by injunction and by prosecution.
Retrieval noteUnamended since 1995: the text in force in 2020-2021 is the text saved, and its words 'public health laws, rules, or orders' are the words the Directives borrowed. 50-1-104 (General penalty): 'Anyone who violates a rule adopted by the department for which a penalty is not specified is guilty of a misdemeanor' (read at the same site; not saved).