Judge Blocks Montana's Election-Deepfake Law for One PAC

A federal judge in Montana blocked state officials on September 16, 2026 from enforcing the state's election-deepfake law against one political committee and its co-plaintiff, holding that the 2025 statute is likely to discriminate on the basis of viewpoint as it applies to them, according to the order.

The order, in Accountability in State Government v. Knudsen, No. 6:26-cv-00038-SPW in the U.S. District Court for the District of Montana, was issued by U.S. District Judge Susan Watters and filed as document 31. It names Attorney General Austin Knudsen, Lewis and Clark County Attorney Kevin Downs and Commissioner of Political Practices Chris Gallus as defendants.

The relief is narrow. The injunction bars investigating or prosecuting only the plaintiffs, the PAC Accountability in State Government and former Republican legislator Dan Bartel, who is listed as the committee's treasurer in a campaign-finance complaint docketed with the Commissioner of Political Practices. Watters limited the relief to them rather than issuing a statewide order, and the statute remains in force for every other speaker in Montana.

On the reasoning, The American Quorum's account relays that Watters found the plaintiffs likely to succeed on a First Amendment challenge because the law restricts synthetic media intended to harm a candidate or party while leaving deceptive media that helps one unrestricted. The statute's own disclosure safe harbour and its satire and parody exemptions were cited as evidence that it operates selectively rather than as a neutral disclosure rule, and the state, on this account, did not show the law was the least restrictive means of addressing what generative AI makes possible. Watters did not decide whether any particular image was a deepfake, and the order is a preliminary injunction based on likelihood of success rather than a final judgment on the law's constitutionality.

The law it addresses is Montana's 2025 Senate Bill 25, codified at Montana Code Annotated 13-35-801 to 13-35-804. It generally prohibits an election actor from sponsoring or distributing a known deepfake of a candidate or a political party within 60 days of an election unless the material carries a prescribed disclosure, which MCA 13-35-802 sets as bold print of at least 12 points, a video disclosure occupying at least 4% of the vertical picture height, and audio running at least eight seconds. Satire and parody, news coverage and qualifying platforms are exempt. Penalties escalate with repeat findings, and MCA 13-35-804 makes a third finding a felony carrying a fine of not more than $5,000, up to two years in state prison, or both.

The dispute behind the case concerned PAC mailers that combined real photographs with AI-generated imagery of candidates, including one of then-candidate Llew Jones. The order records that Gallus pledged his office would dismiss the pending complaints as time allows, and that the defendants had provided no evidence those complaints had actually been dismissed. Those are contested allegations, and no court has ruled on whether any image in the mailers was a deepfake.

The state's response came from the Attorney General's office, which said it was disappointed and was reviewing its next steps, as The American Quorum relayed from Reuters. For creators, the practical read is that the rules governing synthetic political video in the United States are being litigated state by state while the midterms approach, and a ruling that blocks enforcement against one committee does not change what the statute requires of anyone else.

The case continues in the District of Montana; the next thing to watch is whether the state appeals the preliminary injunction, which it said it is reviewing.