Dirk M. Sandefur (born October 22, 1961) is an American lawyer who served as an associate justice of the Montana Supreme Court from 2017 to 2025.
[4] His father was a Korean War veteran who became an auto body mechanic and classic car restorer,[4] and his mother a homemaker.
[2][5][6] Sandefur worked as an aide to a construction inspector with the United States Army Corps of Engineers at Malmstrom Air Force Base from 1984 to 1986.
Cascade County Attorney John Parker later said Sandefur garnered a reputation for being a tough but fair jurist.
[18] Sandefur's first opponent emerged in May 2015 when Kristen Juras, a private-practice attorney and former UM Law School adjunct professor, filed for Cotter's seat as well.
Co-hosts included Errol Galt, the Republican National Committee member; Chuck Denowh, executive director of the Montana Republican Party; and staff of the Montana Group, a public relations firm which worked primarily for conservative candidates.
About the same time, Sandefur himself hosted a fundraising event which attracted donors such as Jorge Quintana, Democratic National Committee member; Pam Bucy, the Democratic Montana Commissioner of Labor and Industry; and Maggie Moran, executive director of NARAL Pro-Choice Montana.
(State law required judicial candidates to return primary donations if they automatically advanced.)
Sandefur countered claims that he was relying on liberal donors by noting that his state election finance report showed 136 Republicans and 124 Democrats[22] among his 902 contributors.
[6] During the primary season, the candidates appeared together only once, in Missoula at a forum in March 2016 sponsored by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).
[23] On March 11, 2016, Eric Mills, a private-practice attorney, also filed for Cotter's Supreme Court seat.
Juras emphasized her work for farmers, ranches, and small business owners, and claimed Sandefur had injected partisan politics into the race.
Sandefur argued Juras had little real courtroom experience, and denigrated at her stand on a number of legal issues (including ongoing litigation over the Montana Stream Access Law).
Controversially, the RSLC paid for an attack ad titled "Last Straw", accusing Sandefur of only lightly punishing child pornographers and men who sexually assaulted or raped children.
"[28] Despite the controversy over "Last Straw", Juras was endorsed by Montana Supreme Court Associate Justice Jim Rice.
Pinski noted that Juras made the donation a month after she had filed for her Supreme Court candidacy, and that the code of conduct prohibited judicial candidates from engaging in partisan activity.
Sandefur claimed Juras lacked the expertise to be a Montana Supreme Court judge, and trial lawyer Alexander Blewett III (for whom the law school is named) repeatedly pressed Juras to admit or deny the allegations made in the "Last Straw" and other attack ads.
[33] As the race neared its conclusion, final election finance reports showed that the two candidates had raised $633,868 for their campaigns.
[34] Republican State Leadership Committee spending topped $225,000 for Juras, while Montanans for Liberty and Justice (a trial lawyers PAC) spent more than $350,000 supporting Sandefur.
[35] Expenditures by the RSLC led the Montana Trial Lawyers Association to make two state election finance complaints.
The second complaint alleged that StopSetEmFreeSandefur.com Committee had misreported the source of its funds, and had purposefully delayed reporting some of campaign activity in violation of state law.