Dana L. Christensen

Dana Lewis Christensen (born May 23, 1951) is a senior United States district judge of the United States District Court for the District of Montana.

Education Christensen earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in history in 1973 from Stanford University and a Juris Doctor in 1976 from the University of Montana School of Law.

Career

Christensen worked in private practice at various firms in Montana from 1977 to 2011. He was a civil litigator and a named partner at a firm in Kalispell, Montana from 1996 to 2011. Christensen's nomination was reported from the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary on October 6, 2011. The Senate confirmed his nomination on December 5, 2011, by voice vote. He received his commission on December 6, 2011. On September 24, 2018, Christensen released a 48-page ruling restoring the protections and cancelling the hunts altogether, citing that Fish & Wildlife's analysis of the threats to grizzly bears was lacking and that they "failed to make a reasoned decision" in considering the impact of delisting the Yellowstone grizzlies from protected species status.

In September 2020, Christensen rejected Republican requests, including those of Montana House Speaker Greg Hertz and Montana Senate President Scott Sales, to block Montana Governor Bullock from permitting counties in Montana to conduct voting by mail in the November 2020 General Election. Bullock claimed that preventing voting by mail during the COVID-19 pandemic would cause potential harm to people voting in person,

In October 2025, Judge Christensen dismissed Lighthiser v. Trump for lack of jurisdiction, in which 22 youth plaintiffs had sought to invalidate executive orders by President Donald Trump that favored fossil fuels over renewable energy and climate science. Christensen's order explicitly acknowledged the harm caused to children by climate change.