Clergy-penitent privilege in Montana

[Eugene Volokh]

    State v. MacKinnon, 1998 MT 78, 1998 WL 180755 (Mont. Apr. 9),
reads the clergy-penitent privilege relatively broadly -- though not
broadly enough for defendant -- "to minimize the risk that [the
privilege] might be discriminatorily applied because of differing
judicial perceptions of a given church's practices or religious
doctrine, and in order to least interfere with the federal and
Montana constitutional protections of religious freedom."

    The court says it's rejecting the narrower reading in State v.
Buss, 76 Wash. App. 780, 887 P.2d 920 (1995) -- could that be the
case about which the original question was asked? -- and accepting
the broader reading in Scott v. Hammock, 870 P.2d 947 (Utah 1994).

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Eugene Volokh, UCLA Law School, (310) 206-3926  fax -7010
               405 Hilgard Ave., L.A., CA 90095