And I don't doubt many in the MT legislature will continue to do all they can to extract every dollar out of the land that they can to the detriment of the world, but this ruling does actually make that more difficult. It could set a precedent (after the MT Supreme Court has their say, and maybe SCOTUS) and show that the court will strike down legislation that goes too far. No doubt some legislators will keep attacking MEPA and any other law that gets in their way, but they won't make the same mistake twice.
FTR - the courts have been overturning a ton of bad laws from this legislature. We're just noticing it now since the veto backstop is gone.
I'm curious as to whether or not this case would have been a win if the Legislature hadn't passed both SB 557 & HB 691. The suit was amended to take those two on. I haven't had time to read Judge Seeley's decision, so apologies if this is a question that's already in there.