https://apnews.com/697ece4213c95b94b456ce1b07ebec9f

HELENA, Mont. (AP) — Montana's Republican-controlled Legislature has withdrawn its subpoenas for the emails of Supreme Court justices and the court administrator that included state judges' opinions about a bill to allow the governor to directly fill judicial vacancies between elections.

The law to eliminate the Judicial Nomination Commission — which the Montana Supreme Court recently upheld as constitutional — is an element of a longer-term effort by Republican lawmakers to remake what it considers an activist judiciary and to appoint more conservative judges.