Unsworth

BACKGROUND

Canyon Ferry Road Baptist Church, an incorporated reli- gious institution located in East Helena, Montana, generally adheres to the Christian doctrines of the Southern Baptist Convention. Among these doctrines is the belief that marriage may exist only between one man and one woman.

In the spring of 2004, the Church’s Pastor, Berthold Gotlieb Stumberg, III, became interested in possible ways in 2172 CANYON FERRY ROAD v. UNSWORTH which the Church could assist in an effort to collect signatures to place Constitutional Initiative No. 96 (“CI-96”) on the Montana state ballot the following November. If placed on the ballot and approved by Montana’s voters, CI-96 would amend the Montana state constitution to define marriage as a union between one man and one woman. For the signatures to be effective, the signed petition forms had to be turned over to the sponsoring organization and then submitted to appropriate election officials no later than June 18, 2004.

In May 2004, Terri Paske, a member of the Church who campaigned for CI-96 in partnership with Jeff Laszloffy,1 printed out a template CI-96 petition from the Montana Fam- ily Foundation website and made less…