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Mars Scott
Mars Scott ran for election for judge of the Montana Supreme Court. He lost in the primary on June 2, 2020.
Scott completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2020. Click here to read the survey answers.
Biography
Mars Scott was born in San Luis Obispo, California. He earned his undergraduate degree from the University of Montana in June 1975 and his law degree from the University of Montana School of Law in June 1980. Scott's professional experience includes working as an attorney at law. He also served in the United States Navy from 1984 to 2006. Scott has been affiliated with the American Legion, Reserve Officers Association, the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers, the National Board of Trial Advocacy, the State Bar of Montana Professionalism Committee and Family Law Section, Montana Trial Lawyers, American Bar Association, the Association of Family and Conciliation Courts, and Missoula Children's Theatre.[1]
Elections
2020
See also: Montana Supreme Court elections, 2020
General election
General election for Montana Supreme Court
Incumbent Laurie McKinnon defeated Mike Black in the general election for Montana Supreme Court on November 3, 2020.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ |  | Laurie McKinnon (Nonpartisan) | 57.0 | 303,839 |
 | Mike Black (Nonpartisan)  | 43.0 | 229,232 | |
| Total votes: 533,071 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Nonpartisan primary election
Nonpartisan primary for Montana Supreme Court
Incumbent Laurie McKinnon and Mike Black defeated Mars Scott in the primary for Montana Supreme Court on June 2, 2020.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Laurie McKinnon (Nonpartisan) | 53.3 | 169,546 |
| ✔ | | Mike Black (Nonpartisan) | 29.7 | 94,445 |
 | Mars Scott (Nonpartisan) | 17.0 | 54,036 | |
| Total votes: 318,027 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Campaign themes
2020
Video for Ballotpedia
| Video submitted to Ballotpedia Released March 25, 2020 |
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Mars Scott completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2020. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Scott's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.
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In 1984, I was directly commissioned into the United States Naval Reserve as an Ensign and retired 22 years later as a Commander. I was recalled to active duty twice. My specialty was Intelligence and I worked for Reserve Unit Seal Team One and was assigned to various commands at the Defense Intelligence Agency, the Office of Naval Intelligence, and the Pentagon. After 9/11, I was one of 26 reservists trained at the Naval Academy to be a certified NCIS agent.
I was the chairperson for the Family Law Section for over 15 years. I currently serve on three Supreme Court groups--the Commission on Technology, the Standing Master Advisory Committee, and the E-filing Advisory Committee. I'm a Fellow in the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers, a Certified Family Law Arbitrator, on the National Board of Trail Advocacy (Family Law), a member of the State Bar Professionalism Committee, and the Missoula Children's Theatre. I twice received the award for the outstanding article in the Montana Lawyer magazine.- Fighting for Montana Families
- Access to Justice for All Citizens of Montana
- Consistency, Common Sense, and Balance in all Judicial Decisions
Further, my 40 years of experience in domestic relations law would bring added knowledge and proficiency to the Montana Supreme Court in family law cases. Four of the seven justices were former criminal prosecutors and three were former criminal public defenders. One justice did have limited family law experience and three were former district court judges so they did hear family law cases. Criminal law is well represented on the Supreme Court, but not domestic relations law. I have focused my practice on domestic relations law and I think I can provide more balance and a better in-depth analysis in domestic relations cases which would make the outcomes more predictable and thereby reduce the stress and cost for parties.
Further, the Montana Supreme Court regulates the admission of attorneys to the state bar and regulates the conduct of attorneys and judges. These issues require great sensitivity to balance the public image of the legal profession with the lawyer's license to practice law. I've been a member of the Montana State Bar Professionalism committee for over 30 years, and I understand the professionalism issues that arise in dealing with clients, courts and colleagues.
Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.
See also
2020 Elections
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ Information submitted to Ballotpedia through the Candidate Connection survey on April 9, 2020
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