Serving the Big Horn Basin for over 100 years
Serving the Big Horn Basin for over 100 years
CHEYENNE (AP) — A coalition of environmental groups says the Wyoming Legislature didn’t go far enough in amending trespass laws the state enacted last year seeking to make it a crime to collect data.
The Wyoming Legislature in the session that ended last week amended civil and criminal statutes to specify the data-trespass laws only apply to private lands. The original laws targeted collecting data on “open lands.” Gov. Matt Mead hasn’t acted on the changes yet.
A coalition of environmental, animal rights and other groups filed suit challenging the original Wyoming laws last year. The coalition claimed the state was trying to prohibit gathering information used to challenge resource management decisions and expose animal cruelty.
The groups opposing the laws are the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, Center for Food Safety, National Press Photographers Association, Natural Resources Defense Council and Western Watersheds Project.
The coalition charged in its lawsuit last year that the term “open lands” could be construed to make it a crime to photograph from highway rights of way, or to collect information on public lands. They argued also it was unconstitutional for the state to seek to bar group members from turning over information they collected to government regulators — an action they said would be covered by protections of free speech and petitioning the government.
U.S. District Judge Scott Skavdahl of Casper last year declined the state’s request to dismiss the lawsuit. He said in a ruling in December he had concerns about the constitutionality of the original state laws.
Justin Pidot, a Colorado lawyer representing the groups challenging the law, said this week he expects the lawsuit will continue, but said the groups haven’t made a final decision.
“The Legislature did away with perhaps the most radical and shocking parts of the law, but the amendments still have significant constitutional problems because they’re singling out people because of the type of information they’re trying to acquire,” Pidot said. “And that type of singling out based on sort of expressive activity is prohibited under the First Amendment.”
The Legislature enacted the laws last year after more than a dozen Wyoming ranchers and landowners filed a state lawsuit in 2014 against Western Watersheds and its state director. The ranchers alleged that the group ignored direct instructions or signs warning them not to trespass on private land in Fremont and Lincoln counties to gather samples.
The Wyoming Attorney General’s Office has defended the date trespass laws the state enacted last year in Skavdahl’s court. Attorney General Peter Michael declined comment this week on how this year’s legislative changes could affect the litigation.
Sen. Larry Hicks, R-Baggs, first sponsored a bill targeting trespassing to collect data in 2014. He also sponsored the measures that were adopted as state law last year and sponsored the amendments to those laws this year.
Hicks said this week that environmental groups are mistaken when they claim that Wyoming adopted the laws to target them and prevent them from communicating with the government. Rather, he said he sponsored the measures because many landowners in his district have experienced state and federal officials coming onto their property without permission to taking water quality samples and conduct wildlife surveys.
Hicks said he’s not surprised to hear that the coalition intends to continue its legal challenge. “That’s exactly what we have expected, bar a complete repeal, there’s nothing that would have satisfied them,” he said.
However, Hicks said he believes the amendments the Legislature adopted this year will give the groups much less to argue about. “I don’t know how they could argue that somehow this bill criminalizes an activity on public lands. It’s crystal clear now,” he said.