Montana AI Deepfake Ban Stalled by Preliminary First Amendment Injunction
A federal judge has temporarily blocked Montana's 2025 law restricting AI-generated political ads, citing likely First Amendment violations.
On Wednesday, Judge Susan Watters granted a preliminary injunction halting enforcement of Montana's 2025 deepfake regulation, which prohibits sponsoring or distributing election communications that are known or should be known as AI-generated fakes within 60 days of voting. The challenge was brought by Accountability in State Government, headed by former legislator Dan Bartel, after the group mailed out doctored images of political figures holding pride flags and pronoun badges.
State Rep. Jennifer Carlson complained the mailer was designed to damage her reputation, but the complaints were dismissed as satire. Watters found that the statute’s focus on the speaker’s intent creates a constitutional conflict, treating identical media differently depending on whether it is meant to harm or promote a candidate. Attorneys for Bartel argue the law’s reliance on “reasonable person” standards makes it unworkable for satire and parody. Montana has 30 days to appeal, but similar challenges have already invalidated comparable laws in California and Hawaii, suggesting the state may face further setbacks.
Why it matters
The ruling highlights the difficulty of regulating AI-generated political content without infringing free-speech protections.
How the sides frame it
HIGH AGREEMENTBoth camps report that a federal judge issued an injunction stopping Montana's AI-deepfake regulation, but the centrist coverage frames it as a block based on free-speech concerns, while the right-leaning coverage frames it as a stalled deepfake ban highlighting a constitutional conflict over speaker intent.
CENTER
Centrist coverage presents the injunction as a free-speech-based block of Montana’s AI campaign-ad law.
RIGHT
Right-leaning coverage presents the injunction as a stalled deepfake ban, stressing a constitutional clash over the statute’s focus on intent.
The right emphasises
- preliminary injunction halting enforcement of the deepfake regulation
- the statute’s focus on the speaker’s intent creates a constitutional conflict
- the ban is effectively stalled
In this story
