He won a nonpartisan election as an associate justice of the Montana Supreme Court in 1984, and served from January 2, 1985, until his retirement on December 31, 2000.
[5] During the Great Depression, William C. Hunt could no longer earn enough money as a dentist to provide for his family, so the Hunts moved to a farm owned by the Nolan family near Burlington, Iowa, where they were able to survive by growing their own food.
Declaring he was born February 29, 1920,[2][6] he enlisted in the Iowa Army National Guard in April 1939.
The 113th Cavalry began conversion into a combined horse-armored unit in September 1940 and was mobilized into federal service on January 13, 1941.
"[5] Another formative experience for Hunt was exposure to the racial segregation faced by African American soldiers during the war, which deeply troubled him.
His mother suggested that, while traveling to Seattle, Hunt stop at the University of Montana to check out an alternative.
[12] While serving as mayor of Chester, Hunt became concerned as the Montana Power Company raised rates more than six-fold in two years.
Initially, after adoption of the 1972 state constitution, the Montana Legislature established an Industrial Accident Board within the new Montana Department of Labor and Industry to both run the state workers' compensation insurance fund and to adjudicate the claims of injured workers.
This conflict of interest led to denial and approval of injury awards which were not based on facts, lump-sum payments to workers, improper and inappropriate internal procedures, poor recordkeeping, and the increasing personal involvement of the board's administrator in disputes.
[19] Hunt became known statewide as "The Flying Judge" for his extensive travels around the state of Montana holding workers' compensation court hearings.
[2] After retiring as Workers' Compensation Court judge in 1981, Hunt returned to the private practice of law in Helena.
Article VII, Section 8 of the state constitution provides for the nonpartisan election, rather than appointment, of Montana Supreme Court justices.
[27] Hunt was widely perceived as a liberal on a court with a strong conservative majority in his first term, when he was often in minority.
[5] Montana Supreme Court Associate Justice Terry N. Trieweiler noted that Hunt wrote several important decisions regarding employer accountability in worker injury cases, consumers' rights, environmental law, and civil liberties.
Hunt received the Jeannette Rankin Public Service Award from the Montana chapter of the ACLU in 2009.
[2] In 2003, William E. Hunt was inducted into the U.S. Army Officer Candidate School Hall of Honor.
[31] William E. Hunt suffered from frail health in the last several years of his life, and lived at the Rocky Mountain Care Center nursing home in Helena after 2012.