CHEYENNE—Wyoming Supreme Court justices grilled attorneys Wednesday on the legality of the state’s two abortion bans, honing in on what has long been the case’s central question: whether a 2012 amendment to the state constitution prevents lawmakers from ending the practice.

It was a day years in the making after several women, doctors and an abortion aid group filed a lawsuit in March 2023 challenging two newly passed abortion bans. A Teton County District Court sided with the plaintiffs in November, striking down a near-total ban and a second against abortion medications before the state appealed the decision to the high court.  

Much like previous court proceedings, Wednesday’s hearing largely focused on Section 38 of the Wyoming Constitution, which protects individuals’ rights to make their own health care decisions. In their questioning, justices wrestled with whether there’s a compelling reason to prohibit abortion in Wyoming, who gets to decide when life begins and whether health care decisions are a fundamental right. 

The hearing took place less than a week after Gov. Mark Gordon announced that he selected his attorney general, Bridget Hill, to replace Chief Justice Kate Fox when she retires from the Wyoming Supreme Court on May 27.

While the decision isn’t expected to be published before Fox’s retirement, she will participate in its consideration and decision since she heard the case, per the court’s internal operating procedures. Meanwhile, Hill will remain Wyoming’s attorney general until she takes the bench on May 28, and she will not participate in the court’s decision on this particular case. 

In the meantime, abortion in Wyoming remains technically legal, though a pair of new laws has effectively stopped the state’s lone clinic — Wellspring Health Access — from providing abortion services.

One of the new laws requires patients seeking abortion medications to first undergo a transvaginal ultrasound and a 48-hour waiting period. A second placed more onerous regulations on Wyoming clinics that perform abortions. A separate case challenging those abortion restrictions was heard in a Natrona County District Court earlier this month. Choosing not to rule from the bench, Judge Thomas Campbell said he would issue a written decision at a later date.

Inside the courtroom 

The long-anticipated hearing lasted about an hour and kicked off with arguments from Wyoming Special Assistant Attorney General Jay Jerde, who is defending the bans for the state. 

“When you have an individual right that’s fundamental, when the state regulates, it has to have a compelling reason for doing so. And the restrictions imposed have to restrict the right to the minimum amount possible while still accomplishing the compelling purpose,” Jerde said. 

But the right of individuals to make their own health care decisions, as specified in the state’s constitution, is not a fundamental right, Jerde said, because of how it is qualified by another section of the constitution that empowers the Legislature. 

“The Legislature may determine reasonable and necessary restrictions on the rights granted under this section to protect the health and general welfare of the people or to accomplish the other purposes set forth in the Wyoming Constitution,” Section 38, Subsection C reads. 

“What about Subsection D?” Justice John Fenn asked. 

“The state of Wyoming shall act to preserve these rights from undue governmental infringement,” Subsection D states. 

“Does that also fit into this reasonable and necessary test?” Fenn asked. 

“No, Your Honor. It does not,” Jerde said. 

Later, Justice Kari Gray pressed Jerde about when life begins. 

“Do the courts get to determine when there’s viability? Does the Legislature? It’s an unsettled area of the law. There’s no consensus. Not secular consensus, not religious consensus on when life begins. So who gets to decide when life begins?” Gray asked. 

That’s up to the Legislature, Jerde said, “because they’re the most answerable to the people.”

Representing the plaintiffs, attorney Peter Modlin pushed back on the argument that health care decisions are not a fundamental right. 

“The question presented in this case is whether the state Legislature may deprive pregnant women of their fundamental constitutional rights for the duration of their pregnancy,” Modlin said. “The state’s position is that the Legislature has plenary authority to dictate to pregnant women what health care choices are available to them. We urge the court to reject this and find the laws unconstitutional.”

“What about the slippery slope?” Fenn asked Modlin later in the hearing. 

“‘Health care decisions’ is a broad term, and if we determine that’s a fundamental right, it seems to me that there’s all kinds of — health care is a heavily regulated industry. It opens Pandora’s box on what is health care and what regulation can be made. Medical marijuana — I mean, you just go check down the list of so many different things that are reasonably regulated that this might turn that upside down,” Fenn said. 

“We would respectfully disagree,” Modlin said.

“Your Honor, we looked, and the state looked as well, for another example of a law that prohibited a specific medical procedure, you couldn’t find one. And neither could the state. These laws are truly unique,” he said.

Marci Bramlet, another attorney for the plaintiffs, reiterated this point in her arguments, citing the fact that “there is no correlating limitation on a man’s right to make health care decisions, especially reproductive health care decisions.”

“But a man is not similarly situated,” Gray responded. “Equal protection requires similarly situated individuals.” 

Outside the courtroom

Abortion rights advocates gathered in front of the Wyoming Supreme Court for around an hour before the proceedings. A group of perhaps three dozen people, mostly women and some men, wore green and stood quietly holding signs. They did not engage in any chanting or shouting — an organizer told WyoFile they did not want to give the impression of trying to intimidate or sway either people entering the courtroom or the justices inside.

Among them was Dr. Giovannina Anthony, a Jackson provider who is one of the plaintiffs in both ongoing legal disputes over abortion. Anthony told WyoFile that the new laws have forced her to provide transvaginal ultrasounds to three women in recent months. 

Clients have come to Anthony through Just The Pill, a company that provides abortion medications by mail. State law requires them to receive an ultrasound 48 hours before receiving the abortion medication. There’s no medical reason for the procedure, Anthony told WyoFile, but she has to follow the law. 

“I apologize to the patient for a probe in the vagina that is not necessary and doesn’t improve patient safety,” she said. “It makes me feel like an agent of the state, not a doctor.”

Abortion providers, including Anthony and Wellspring, the Casper clinic, have been waiting on a Natrona County judge’s action on a proposed injunction against the law mandating the ultrasound, which the Legislature passed earlier this year. That case is likely to proceed regardless of the Wyoming Supreme Court’s decision on the abortion bans, because that proceeding focuses on the regulation of abortion, rather than an outright ban.

The ultrasound requirement, Anthony said, is invasive, adds extra costs and an extra logistical hurdle for women seeking an abortion. But it’s not going to dissuade them, she said. In 30 years of practice, Anthony has never seen an ultrasound change a woman’s mind about an abortion. 

“Women who want to end their pregnancy are going to end their pregnancy,” the doctor said, “no matter what.” 

That’s a worry that drew Wendy Volk, a longtime Cheyenne realtor and outspoken women’s rights activist, to join the group standing in front of the Wyoming Supreme Court. 

Volk cited the well-publicized deaths of pregnant women in Texas and Georgia who had sought abortions in those strictly limited states. “Women are dying because of abortion bans,” she said. She fears a ban in Wyoming would put women here in similarly unsafe situations. 

But Volk was optimistic the Wyoming Supreme Court would uphold the Teton County judge’s choice. She believes the state’s constitution protects women’s rights to the health care of their choosing. “That is the Wyoming way,” she said. 

Cheyenne-based psychologist Sarah Courtright shared Volk’s optimism for the outcome. She didn’t see how the state’s attorneys could reconcile the protections for personal health care choices with a ban on abortion, she said. She also pointed to lawmakers’ recent drive to make sure adult Wyomingites can’t be forced to take a vaccine — a response by conservative lawmakers to the government’s public health response to the COVID-19 pandemic. 

“What are they even going to be able to say?” she asked of the ban’s proponents. 

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Those opposing the ban lined one side of the sidewalk that led up to the courthouse entrance. But on the other side of the sidewalk — where one could envision a line of counterprotestors — there was just green grass. 

Inside the courtroom, however, advocates for ending abortion filled a number of the benches. Only one sitting member of the Legislature, conservative Cheyenne Republican Rep. Gary Brown, attended the hearing. But the religious-driven political faction that has pushed the abortion bans held a “Pray for Life” livestream last week, in which they prayed for a favorable outcome to Wednesday’s hearing. 

“We know that life is of infinite value,” Nathan Winters began the livestream. Winters, a former lawmaker and president of the Wyoming Family Alliance, a conservative Christian organization, said people were gathering virtually to “pray for wisdom and pray for Wyoming’s future.” 

Winters was followed by former Wyoming Supreme Court Justice Keith Kautz, who left the bench in May. 

“To our great shame, Father, we have decided that an unborn child made in your image isn’t a child at all, but merely an unidentified tissue of potential life that may be destroyed and killed even though we know it is alive,” he said during his prayer remarks. “We are becoming enslaved to unthinkable corruption and immorality.”

Speaker of the House and prominent anti-abortion crusader Chip Neiman, R-Hulett, also spoke, as did Sen. Cheri Steinmetz, R-Torrington. 

“I just want us to really realize how important what we’re really doing here is,” Neiman said. “We are standing in the gap for people who can’t have a voice.”

The court will now take the arguments made during the hearing under advisement before publishing a written decision that’s expected sometime later this year.

The post Wyoming Supreme Court mulls constitutionality of state’s abortion bans appeared first on WyoFile .

Legal counsel for the Wyoming GOP advised county parties to disregard state statute and a Wyoming Supreme Court ruling when considering who should be allowed to vote in local party elections, according to a letter obtained by WyoFile. Instead, the attorney advised county Republicans to follow a contested party bylaw since the matter involves a private organization. 

“I understand some have alleged county officers who are no longer precinct persons may not vote in your upcoming elections,” attorney Brian Shuck wrote in a March 17 letter to Weston County Chairman Karen Drost. “They argue that, if there is a conflict between a GOP bylaw and a state statute, the statute controls,” Shuck wrote. “I disagree.” 

Shuck’s letter arrived in the midst of victories for Republicans less aligned with state party officials in several county GOP leadership elections. Former Speaker of the House Albert Sommers, for example, was elected chair in Sublette County, while former representatives Tony Niemiec and Lorraine Quarberg were selected to lead their parties in Sweetwater and Laramie counties respectively. 

In recent years, harder-line Republicans, including Shuck and Chairman Frank Eathorne, have dominated the party, while infighting and legal battles sapped its coffers. But some pundits and political observers see the recent victories by more moderate Republicans as a sign of the party turning back toward its big-tent ethos of the past. 

“I just think maybe this tide might be starting to turn a little bit,” Curtis Rankin, a Weston County committeeman, told WyoFile. 

Precinct people 

When Rankin, a third-generation rancher, ran for precinct committeeman in August, it was his first time doing so. What drew him to the race — which he handedly won with 68% of the vote — was simple. 

“Well, because I don’t agree with what the Freedom Caucus is doing,” Rankin said. 

The Wyoming Freedom Caucus, which aligns with the further-right wing of the state’s Republican Party, won control of the House in the Legislature last year after a meteoric rise that began in some respects in the local party positions that Rankin now finds himself in. 

The Freedom Caucus, Rankin said, “they talk about all this transparency that they want and fairness, and then when they get control down at the Legislature, there’s like half of the committee bills that they worked on during the interim that never even got out of the speaker’s drawer to be discussed.” 

Committee bills accounted for 14 of the 95 bills that Speaker of the House Chip Neiman, R-Hulett, kept in his drawer and thereby unilaterally killed during this year’s session. Last week, former Freedom Caucus Chairman Rep. John Bear, R-Gillette, told lawmakers that was to be expected after the 2024 election resulted in an “ideological shift.”

“There’s probably about six of us out of 21 that’s not Freedom Caucus [aligned] on that committee,” Rankin said of the Weston County Republican Party’s precinct members. “So it’s kind of an uphill battle.” 

Every two years, the public elects precinct committee members for both the Republican and Democratic parties as part of Wyoming’s primary elections, as outlined in state statute. 

The responsibilities of precinct members vary, but arguably their weightiest duty involves selecting nominations for political vacancies. In 2022 alone, Republican precinct committee members were tasked with selecting nominees to replace outgoing Secretary of State Ed Buchanan and Superintendent of Public Instruction Jillian Ballow — two of the state’s top elected officials. 

It’s also up to precinct members to elect party leadership — including their chairman and secretary — and to develop the party’s platform, which in turn often shapes legislation. 

When Weston County held its leadership elections in March, it followed Shuck’s advice to allow precinct members who had lost their August elections to cast a ballot. That included Chairman Karen Drost, who voted and was reelected to the county party’s top post after losing her race in August. 

But that’s not right, Rankin said. 

“They claim, you know, being that they’re a private entity, that they don’t have to follow other rules, and so evidently the Supreme Court case in their minds does not affect them, which I just totally disagree with,” Rankin said. 

Neither Drost nor Shuck returned WyoFile’s request for comment. 

Who gets to vote?

In his letter, Shuck wrote that the argument against allowing ousted precinct persons to vote “relies heavily on the Uinta County case and their interpretation of a state statute.” 

The Uinta County case involved a dispute within that county’s Republican Party over who could vote in its 2021 officer and state committeeperson elections. A party bylaw adopted that same year allowed outgoing precinct committee people to vote due to their past positions in leadership. 

That was a violation of state law, according to the plaintiffs — a group of Republicans on the outs with the further-right Uinta County GOP leadership — who filed suit in district court. The defendants, which included former Secretary of State Karl Allred, argued that the issue was not for the state to decide but rather the party since it’s a private organization. They also argued that the party’s constitutional right to freedom of political association would be violated if it was prohibited from adopting and using the bylaw in question. 

In 2023, the Wyoming Supreme Court sided with the plaintiffs “because the voting procedure used in the election and the party’s bylaw violated clear and unambiguous language” of state law, according to the ruling. 

The high court did not decide on whether the state law violated the party’s constitutional right to freedom of association since it was “not properly presented and the Wyoming Attorney General was not notified of, or allowed to participate in, the litigation,” the ruling stated. 

Shuck argued in his March letter that since the Wyoming Supreme Court “dodged” the constitutionality question in the case, the party bylaw — and ultimately, the U.S. Constitution — supplants state statute. 

“I will see your statute and raise you a Constitution,” Shuck wrote. 

What now?

Ultimately, at least a handful of counties allowed ousted precinct committee members to vote in leadership elections, including Washakie County. 

“We did a provisional vote, but it didn’t matter in the results,” newly elected Washakie County GOP Chairman Mike Greear said. 

Greear, an attorney, previously served in the Legislature as House Speaker Pro Tempore. He said Shuck advised his county party over the phone after a committeewoman raised the issue at its election meeting. 

“I would disagree with [Shuck’s] advice, I can say that,” Greear said. “It’s not the kind of advice I would give.” 

Had allowing ousted precinct committee members to vote been enough to tip elections one way or another, Greear said it may have been a different discussion. 

“Fortunately, we weren’t in that position,” he said. 

But the debate over who is legally qualified to vote in GOP leadership elections could play out again in May when county precinct members and officers meet in Cody to elect the state party’s leadership. 

The post In dispute over local elections, Wyoming Republican Party attorney says law, court ruling don’t apply appeared first on WyoFile .

Gov. Mark Gordon selected Wyoming Attorney General Bridget Hill to fill a seat on the state Supreme Court, his office announced Friday. 

Hill has served as attorney general since 2019, when she was appointed by Gordon at the start of his first gubernatorial term. Before then, she worked as director of the Wyoming Office of State Lands and Investments, staff attorney for then Wyoming Supreme Court justices Michael Golden and Larry Lehman as well as holding other positions in the attorney general’s office. 

“I am honored by the governor’s decision to select me for this position, as I have tremendous respect and reverence for the work of the Wyoming Supreme Court,” Hill said in a statement. 

Hill will replace Chief Justice Kate M. Fox, who is retiring on May 27. The Wyoming Constitution requires the state’s Supreme Court justices and district court judges to step down upon reaching the age of 70. 

“With her retirement, Chief Justice Fox leaves a singular legacy. Her tenure has set high standards for the Supreme Court, making this selection from three well-qualified candidates particularly challenging,” Gordon said in a statement. 

In March, the Judicial Nominating Commission announced that it had selected its nominees for the governor to consider — Hill, District Court Judge Stuart S. Healy III and former Wyoming Bar Association President Anna Reeves Olson. 

“After careful consideration, I chose General Hill because she possesses a deep and original understanding of both Wyoming and Constitutional law. She has dedicated her legal career to public service and has proven her ability to examine issues from all perspectives. She reflects a level of integrity that is as valuable as it is admirable,” Gordon said in a statement. 

Wyoming’s district, circuit and supreme court judges are appointed through a merit selection process, as is required by the state’s constitution. That process begins with the Judicial Nominating Commission selecting three applicants to submit to the governor who makes the ultimate decision. 

Hill will take to the bench in the state’s highest court on May 28. Justice Lynne Boomgarten will take over as Chief Justice. 

The governor’s announcement comes five days before the Wyoming Supreme Court is set to hear arguments in Wyoming’s ongoing abortion battle. As attorney general, Hill has been tasked with defending two abortion bans that a lower court struck down in November — a decision the state is appealing to the higher court.

The post Gordon taps Attorney General Bridget Hill for Wyoming Supreme Court seat appeared first on WyoFile .

After lawmakers passed a record low number of committee bills in the 2025 general session, the Wyoming Legislature’s governing body voted Tuesday to cut back how often committees meet in the off-season. 

Much of the Legislature’s work gets done in the months between sessions, also known as the interim, when lawmakers meet in groups to work through often complicated topics that require more time and resources than what is available during the session. 

Committee bills are the outcome of those meetings, where public testimony and input from state agencies and other stakeholders shape the conversation. And since more time, public input and taxpayer money go into such legislation, lawmakers have long prioritized those bills. 

But traditions have changed in recent years. 

In 2025, 47% of committee bills became law, according to Legislative Service Office records. That’s an all-time low since 2000, when the LSO began tracking those statistics. Last year, committee bills failed on introduction at higher rates than ever before. 

Such a shift was one reason why Senate Majority Floor Leader Tara Nethercott, R-Cheyenne, brought a motion at the Management Council’s Tuesday meeting to reduce interim meeting days from six to four for each of the Legislature’s committees. 

As to why committee bills are failing more frequently, Rep. John Bear, R-Gillette, provided one explanation. 

“We had a major ideological shift in the body in this last turnover,” Bear said, referencing the Wyoming Freedom Caucus’ victory in the 2024 election. 

The caucus, which Bear formerly chaired, represents the further-right wing of the state’s Republican Party and won control of the House last November. 

“And so we saw some considerable changes, and that affects bills that came out of a previous Legislature as committee bills,” Bear said. 

That ideological shift also was reflected in another decision lawmakers made this week. More specifically, the council voted to cover travel expenses for lawmakers who attend American Legislative Exchange Council meetings, as it currently does for non-partisan organizations, like the Council of State Governments and National Conference of State Legislatures. 

ALEC is a national organization funded by corporate and conservative donors and is known for pushing model bills out to state legislatures — several of which have been introduced in Wyoming. The organization caught headlines in 2012 for allegedly enabling outsized corporate interests in state legislatures. More recently, Business Insider detailed the group’s well-funded efforts, starting at the state level, to rewrite the United States Constitution. 

Fewer meetings 

In recent years, the Legislature’s interim has officially kicked off with the Management Council meeting in Cheyenne to hear proposed topics from committee chairs before signing off on them. Ahead of that meeting, the public and other stakeholders can make topic and bill suggestions. 

But Nethercott’s motion made two other changes to that process. For one, it allowed committee chairs to independently determine topics rather than having Management Council evaluate and approve those proposals. And for committees with a heavier workload that may end up needing more meeting days, the motion permitted them to return to the council to ask for additional days. 

Republican and Democratic lawmakers alike have come to push back on the council for what they see as micromanaging committee work, including House Minority Floor Leader Rep. Mike Yin, D-Jackson. 

“I think that the kind of nitpicking over the topic letters creates a situation where not only does the public have to petition their committees during the session and their committee chairman, but then they have to come to [the Management Council] and petition us as well for specific topics,” Yin said. “I don’t think that’s super efficient. I think we have a committee chairman for a reason, and we should basically delegate that ability to them.”

As a former committee chair, Nethercott said she shared that frustration. 

“Recognizing that my need for autonomy as a chairman to set the work for the committee is really paramount, and when Management Council kind of tries to micromanage that, it really interferes with the ability of what the committees have decided to do for their interim,” she said. 

The reduction in committee meeting days is estimated to save between $120,000 and $140,000, Nethercott said. 

While most of the Management Council supported Nethercott’s motion, some chairmen at the meeting pushed back, including several who said they expected to ask for additional days. 

“I do believe that your actions in cutting down the interim days is shortsighted,” Senate Transportation, Highways and Military Affairs Committee Chairman Stephan Pappas, R-Cheyenne, told the council. 

Echoing comments from Wheatland Republican Rep. Jeremy Haroldson, Pappas described the interim meetings as “educational days.”

“I have a committee that has numerous new members, and in order to bring them [up] to speed in four days, is going to be difficult,” Pappas said. 

“I always argued with Senator [Charles] Scott about this. He always said, ‘We do too much in the interim.’ I, frankly, don’t think we do enough to educate our people, especially with the high turnovers that we have,” Pappas said. 

Fewer committee meetings also cuts down on opportunities for the public to weigh in, Pappas said. 

Ultimately, Pappas said his committee would abide by the shorter schedule but would likely need to cut tours it had planned to take of Wyoming Department of Transportation facilities. 

Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Tim Salazar, R-Riverton, initially expressed concern that the reduced schedule would impair his committee’s work preparing the budget. The motion, however, would not apply to the committee’s two weeks’ worth of budget hearings that take place late in the year, LSO told the council. 

Joint Corporations, Elections and Political Subdivisions Committee Co-chair Sen. Cale Case, R-Lander, and Joint Education Committee Co-chair Rep. Ocean Andrew, R-Laramie, both told the council they would need the additional meeting days. 

Travel expenses 

As a member of ALEC’s board of directors, Sen. Dan Laursen, R-Powell, “is among the vanguard for freedom who dedicate their time and resources to promote limited government, free markets and federalism,” according to ALEC’s website. 

Laursen has attended ALEC meetings for most of the decade he’s served in the Wyoming Legislature, he told the council Tuesday. 

“For many years, I’ve asked for this,” Laursen said of his request to be reimbursed for travel to two ALEC meetings scheduled for later this year. 

The Legislature’s out-of-state travel reimbursement policy covers two meetings during the interim of “a national or regional organization in which the Legislature participates.” 

Those organizations include the National Conference of State Legislatures, the Council of State Governments, including the Western Legislative Conference, the Education Commission of the States, the Energy Council, and the State Legislative Leaders Foundation. The latter two are limited to certain lawmakers, while all other out-of-state travel must be specifically approved in advance by the Management Council. 

“If you don’t go to those, I think you should be able to go to the ones like this, so that’s my request,” Laursen said. 

Senate President Bo Biteman, R-Ranchester, said he understood where Laursen was coming from. 

“I’m not going to throw one of [those] organizations under the bus, but I went to one of them and wasn’t impressed,” Biteman said. “It just wasn’t — it did have kind of a liberal bent to it. I didn’t enjoy any of the programming.” 

“I always thought, ‘Why can’t we pick something that’s more geared toward our interests and what we’re trying to accomplish as legislators in our limited time doing this job?’” he said. 

LSO estimated that Wyoming pays between $150,000 and $200,000 to NCSL and between $100,000 and $125,000 to CSG in annual dues, which are calculated according to a percentage of the total state budget. 

“Both those organizations offer quite a few scholarships to members and to staff to attend their trainings that are also taken up,” LSO Director Matt Obrecht told the council. 

But the cost concerned some council members, including Salazar. 

“I believe that at our next Management Council meeting, we would ask NCSL, CSG, to come, given the cost that some of us have just discovered, the cost of those, and then we could have a discussion as to the future of whether or not we want to participate,” Salazar said. 

Yin, who currently serves as CSG West’s chair, stood by the value of those memberships and said, “there are things that our dues pay for that aren’t just the trips to the meetings.” 

The Management Council’s next meeting has not yet been scheduled.

Correction: This story has been updated to correct Sen. Stephan Pappa’s chairmanship. —Ed.

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The first sandhill crane that Rob Koelling, a Powell birding photographer, spotted this year appeared in late February, slightly earlier than expected. 

“They typically arrive in early March and feed in the corn fields along the Shoshone River,” Koelling told WyoFile in an email. 

If the long-legged bird’s huge wingspan and red forehead set against its gray and rusty plumage don’t give it away, its loud, rattling bugle call is unmistakable. And unlike herons, who tuck their necks into an “S” shape in flight, sandhill cranes fly with their necks outstretched, as photographed by Koelling. 

The cranes can be seen this time of year in Wyoming, refueling on an 800-1,000 mile trip from their southern wintering grounds to the northernmost regions of the U.S. and Canada, where they breed in the summer months. 

Some, however, will stick around Wyoming, Koelling told WyoFile, until the autumn, when it’s time to reverse course. 

“When they gather for the night in the fall we have seen groups of upwards of a 1,000 birds,” he said. 

The post The springtime return of sandhill cranes appeared first on WyoFile .

After Wyoming lawmakers passed a slate of bills to restrict the rights of transgender people during the 2025 legislative session, LGBTQ+ advocates hope to use the legal system to defeat the new laws. 

“If you are discriminated against because of [one of these bills] … then please let us know. Please reach out to us,” Sara Burlingame, executive director of Wyoming Equality, said at a March virtual recap of the session. 

“Because what happens next is this has to go to the courts,” Burlingame said. “People need to be willing to say, ‘Hey, I’m a Wyoming citizen, and this has violated my right to privacy. This has violated my right to equal access.’”

The new laws include two separate restrictions on transgender people using certain private spaces, including restrooms and locker rooms, as well as an extension of the 2023 sports ban to collegiate athletics. Wyoming Equality announced plans to litigate the sports ban after it was enacted two years ago to prohibit transgender girls from competing in middle- and high-school girls’ sports events. 

So far, however, it’s gone unchallenged.

An estimated four transgender students were competing in Wyoming middle- and high-school athletics at the time the Legislature passed the 2023 ban. When Senate File 44, “Fairness in sports-intercollegiate athletics,” goes into effect on July 1, the ban will extend to students at the University of Wyoming and each of the state’s community colleges. But whether there are transgender college athletes in Wyoming who will be affected remains to be seen. In December, NCAA President Charlie Baker told a Senate panel there were fewer than 10 transgender athletes among the 500,000 total athletes at NCAA schools. 

Santi Murillo, the University of Wyoming’s first openly transgender student-athlete, works as the communications coordinator for Wyoming Equality. 

Coming out of the session, Murillo’s biggest concern is the “harassment we’re gonna face,” she said at the virtual event. 

“I used to feel safe in Wyoming, but now I don’t think so anymore,” she said. 

Bathroom bills

Set to go into effect on July 1, House Bill 72, “Protecting privacy in public spaces act,” requires public and educational facilities, like schools, state government buildings and prisons, to designate multi-occupancy restrooms, changing areas or sleeping quarters “for use exclusively by males or exclusively by females.” 

In other words, the new law will require people to utilize the facility that corresponds to the sex they were assigned at birth, regardless of their gender identity, physical appearance or what appears on their legal documents. 

The bill’s main sponsor, Worland Republican Rep. Martha Lawley, wrote in a pre-session op-ed that the legislation “ensures that women and girls can feel safe and respected in places where privacy is essential—bathrooms, lockers rooms, showers, and correctional facilities.” 

There’s also Senate File 62, “Sex-designated facilities and public schools,” which took effect when Gov. Mark Gordon signed it in March. It puts the onus on public school students to use restrooms, locker rooms and sleeping quarters to align with their sex at birth. 

Sen. Dan Laursen, R-Powell, brought the bill after the Park County School District 1 Board of Trustees voted unanimously in November for a resolution that called on lawmakers to pass legislation related to restroom use. 

The new law also requires school boards to adopt policies to provide for disciplinary action for students who refuse to comply. It also provides legal standing in court for parents or legal guardians should they sue a school district for not complying with the law — also known as a private right of action. Lawley’s bill also provides a private right of action, but without the restriction to parents or legal guardians. 

Neither bill includes other enforcement mechanisms. But that raises questions for Murillo. 

“These legislators know who I am. They know my identity,” Murillo said at the virtual event. When she and lawmakers return to the Capitol for the 2026 budget session, “are they going to heavily police me if I use the women’s restroom?” 

Elliot Hinkle, who is transgender and nonbinary, told WyoFile that legislators were not prepared to explain the more practical effects of such bathroom bans. 

“When I gave testimony at the Capitol this year, none of them answered that question for me — ‘Which restroom should I use?’” Hinkle said. 

What is a Woman Act

Hinkle posed this same question alongside other concerns last week at a town hall in Casper hosted by local Freedom Caucus-aligned lawmakers. 

“If I walk into a women’s restroom because I’m a trans person who was assigned female at birth, what might happen to me is someone would say, ‘Why is that man in the women’s restroom?’ rather than just letting me use the restroom and do my business,” Hinkle said at the event. 

“So the issue I’m worried about is also that I could do no harm to anyone, but still get falsely accused of something because of how I’m perceived. So the risk we have here is people choosing based on perception who is or isn’t supposed to be in a space, and then harm occurring to my community,” Hinkle said. 

“I encourage you to use the family, individual restrooms, and I think that alleviates the entire problem,” Rep. Jayme Lien, R-Casper, responded to Hinkle. 

Lien, a freshman, was the main sponsor of House Bill 32, “What is a woman act,” which defines “male” and “female” based on sex assigned at birth and applies these definitions across all Wyoming statutes. 

While Gordon let the bill become law without his signature, he said it “oversteps legislative authority and encroaches upon the role of the courts” in a letter explaining his decision on the bill. 

Gordon also pointed to “issues of practical administration” and said he suspected the bill “was not drafted with keen legal objectives in mind as much as it was to scratch a welcome national political itch.” 

Lien pushed back in a news release. 

“What is a Woman Act provides clear directive for the judicial branch when defining male and female in more than 250 state statutes already in existence. Each piece of the Wyoming statutes that address ‘male,’ ‘female,’ ‘man,’ ‘woman,’ ‘boy,’ ‘girl’ now will have an undeviating definition to allow for uniform application in any litigation,” Lien wrote. 

Meanwhile, arguably Wyoming’s most high-profile litigation involving transgender issues — a case involving a transgender student and a University of Wyoming sorority — was dismissed in federal district court not on account of the definition of a woman, but rather based on a private, voluntary organization’s constitutional right to determine its own membership. 

Waiting game

While advocates wait to see if a legal challenge presents itself, Hinkle said they’re particularly concerned about what the new laws will mean for transgender youth. Hinkle grew up in Casper and now works as a consultant teaching best practices for supporting LGBTQ+ families and youth, among other topics. 

“I feel really worried, honestly, for kids at schools. I talk with some trans youth here [in Casper,] one youth in particular, who’s being bullied for using the boys’ restroom, being bullied by other boys,” Hinkle said. 

Over half of Wyoming’s LGBTQ+ young people seriously considered suicide in the past year, including 60% of transgender and nonbinary young people, according to The Trevor Project’s 2024 state-by-state survey. 

The report also found that 59% of respondents said that they or their family have considered leaving Wyoming for another state because of LGBTQ+ related politics and laws, including 72% of transgender and nonbinary young people. 

When considering those realities, Hinkle said, it’s important to remember “there are people in Wyoming that care about queer, trans people. We want you to have privacy just as much as, like, respect and dignity. You deserve to be here and take up space.”

“The fight is not over,” Hinkle said. 

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Wyoming residents will soon need to provide proof of citizenship and residency when registering to vote following Gov. Mark Gordon’s decision Friday to allow a bill to become law without his signature. 

Set to go into effect in July, the law makes Wyoming one of the few states to require proof of citizenship as part of its voter registration. Louisiana and New Hampshire passed similar laws in 2024, although Wyoming’s statute appears broader than New Hampshire’s. 

Wyoming’s new law also requires residents, for the first time ever, to attest that they’ve lived in the state for at least 30 days before casting a ballot. That requirement clashes with both the Wyoming Constitution and federal law, Gordon wrote in a letter to Secretary of State Chuck Gray who pressed for the measure. 

“I cannot sign it as such,” the governor wrote of the new law. 

The legislation was one of 45 election-related bills filed by lawmakers in the 2025 general session. The new restrictions were a top priority for Gray and the Wyoming Freedom Caucus, both of which chalked up Gordon’s decision as a win. 

“Proof of citizenship and proof of residency for registering to vote are both so important,” Gray said in a press release. “Only United States citizens, and only Wyomingites, should be voting in Wyoming elections. Period.”

The new law is “also key in supporting President Trump’s pivotal work to have proof of citizenship for registering to vote with the SAVE Act at the federal level,” Gray wrote. 

In the days leading up to Gordon’s decision, Gray called on the governor to sign the bill via social media posts and an op-ed published in Cowboy State Daily. 

American Action Fund — a Texas-based nonprofit with ties to Make Liberty Win, a Virginia-based political action committee — added to the public-pressure campaigns with text messages to Wyoming voters. 

Last year, Gray sought to enact such requirements outside of the lawmaking process by adopting them via executive rulemaking. But Gordon rejected the rules on the basis that they exceeded the scope of the secretary’s legal authority. The governor referenced this in his Friday letter to Gray. 

“Because it is laudable to continuously improve our standards for identification, I am thrilled that this legislation now gives the Secretary of State the authority he was trying to usurp by passing rules he had no authority to pass last spring,” Gordon wrote. “The will of the Legislature is finally clear on this point.” 

Gray also had harsh words for the governor in a text to WyoFile calling the new law “the culmination of over 2 years of back and forth with an insider, very weak Governor.”

It will now be up to Gray to determine via the rulemaking process what documentation counts as proof of residency. As for proof of citizenship, the law specifies nine different options including a birth certificate, a valid United States passport and a Wyoming driver’s license. 

Currently, the voter registration process only requires citizens to provide proof of identity and to attest that they reside in Wyoming and are U.S. citizens. 

Requiring voters to reside in a county for 30 days before an election has drawn legal fights in other states. Critics have argued that a durational residency requirement disenfranchises voters who move to a state or a new county or precinct in fewer than 30 days before an election.

Gordon’s concerns and assurances

“If this Act simply dealt with clarifying the statutory authority for rulemaking requiring proof of residency and citizenship to vote (already constitutionally required), there would be no need for this explanation,” Gordon wrote of his letter. “Unfortunately, that is not the case.”

Under the Wyoming Constitution, voters must be 21 years old, a state resident for at least one year and a resident of the county in which they seek to cast a ballot for at least 60 days. But those requirements are not upheld, as Gordon pointed out, “by the recognition of the supremacy of United States law.”

The U.S. Constitution, Gordon noted, was amended in 1971 to establish 18 as the voting age requirement, which is how Wyoming elections are now run despite the state constitution stipulating 21. 

As for a durational requirement, Gordon called 30 days “arbitrary” since it does not comport with the one year specified in the Wyoming Constitution. 

“If the Legislature is already willing to test the bounds of legal propriety, they might as well respect original construction,” he wrote. 

Gordon also pointed to federal statute that prohibits a U.S. citizen from being barred from voting in a presidential election because they do not meet a durational residency requirement established in state law. The governor’s letter notes that the competing legal language could lead to lawsuits. 

“Whether the federal or state statute will prevail in a legal contest is a question that will have to be resolved in court,” the governor wrote. 

Gordon also took the opportunity in his letter to reiterate his confidence in Wyoming’s elections. 

“Our elections are precious, and those that have served as election judges and clerks over the years should be complimented for the diligence they have brought to this important task,” he wrote, “I have both won and lost elections in this state. I have never whined about the outcome or sought to reengineer the process. I believe the results even when they don’t go my way.”

The legislation was the last remaining bill from the 2025 general session that awaited a decision by the governor. He had until midnight Friday to take action.

Correction: This story was updated on April 1, 2025 to include details about other states requiring proof of citizenship to register to vote. —Ed.

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LARAMIE—Wyoming’s U.S. Rep. Harriet Hageman provided no new details regarding the Trump administration’s mass layoffs of federal workers during a Wednesday night town hall. 

Her constituents, however, made one thing clear — they want answers. And many of them are angry. 

More than 500 people squeezed into the auditorium of the historic Laramie Plains Civic Center. With each seat filled, including the balcony, residents crowded in the back and lined the outer aisles. Dozens brought signs. One carried a blue, pink and white flag. Some wore red baseball hats and brandished Hageman for Congress campaign signs. 

Originally slated for a room a fraction of the size in another corner of the building, the event had been advertised as a “recap of the latest developments in Congress” with an audience Q&A to follow. 

But before Hageman even reached the spotlit podium, she was greeted with a roaring “boo” as she walked across the stage. Supporters stood and clapped despite being heavily outnumbered.

“What an incredible turnout. It’s very exciting to be back in Laramie, Wyoming, where I went to school. What I would like you to do is, I see a lot of signs around, and I understand what you’re trying to say. I get it. I can read them,” Hageman said before she was interrupted. 

“Fuck you! That’s what we’re saying,” someone in the crowd hollered. 

From there, the room remained at a rolling boil. 

At several points, the crowd broke out into chants, including “tax the rich” and “do your job.” Some attendees argued amongst themselves, while the heavy law enforcement presence maintained a hands-off approach. No one was asked to leave or escorted out, a Laramie police officer confirmed to WyoFile after the event. 

About half of the Q&A was conducted without a microphone, making it difficult to hear. A couple of local Democratic Party organizers, including Linda Devine and Mike Selmer, asked attendees to curtail the yelling and cursing in order to have a “dialogue.” Those calls were mostly ignored. 

Hageman’s supporters, most of whom sat in the front rows, were vastly outnumbered. A few, including former Colorado congressman Doug Lamborn, used the Q&A as an opportunity to thank and praise her. Others, like Kathy Russell, who lives in Cheyenne and works as executive director of the Wyoming Republican Party, scowled and used her phone to record those who objected to Hageman. 

The congresswoman, meanwhile, returned fire with her constituents. 

“It’s so bizarre to me how obsessed you are with the federal government,” Hageman said when asked about the fate of Grand Teton and Yellowstone national parks. 

“You guys are going to have a heart attack if you don’t calm down,” Hageman said. “I’m sorry, you’re hysterical.” 

The night marked Hageman’s 74th town hall in the last three years, she said. The event, however, was decidedly different from what had come before. A typical Hageman town hall mostly attracts her supporters, functioning as a kind of campaign stop. But the Laramie town hall took place in one of the few blue-leaning cities in Wyoming, home to the state’s only four-year public university. 

Republican congressional leadership recently urged its members to stop hosting in-person town halls to avoid angry constituents and confrontations going viral online. 

Hageman has pressed on. 

Earlier in the week, she held a town hall in Afton, where she was met with some resistance but mostly support. Speaking to reporters after the event, Hageman dismissed questions regarding how the Elon Musk-led DOGE downsizing was affecting Wyoming’s federal land managers and their staff with a remark about “a lot of rumors” going around. 

She maintained that position in Laramie, even when she came face to face with constituents who said they’d been fired in February. 

One woman, who did not give her name, told Hageman she had been fired from a job with the United States Department of Agriculture, where she worked with Wyoming farmers to combat drought. The woman said she was dismissed despite having only the highest marks on her performance review.

“In a state where so many farmers rely on government programs for drought and disaster relief, Trump’s plans to cut these programs and the people who administer them, coupled with the tariffs, will decimate Wyoming farms in rural communities. What are you doing about that?” the woman asked.

“I disagree,” Hageman responded. 

“I think that our small businesses, our ranchers and our farmers are going to be able to actually thrive in an environment where they are not so over regulated by the federal government,” the congresswoman added. 

Another woman who did not give her name described uncertain working conditions while serving as a fellow for the Department of Defense. 

“Every day we get unsigned emails that are supposedly [from the United States Office of Personnel Management.] Are you scared? Are you getting those emails? Do you know what DOGE is doing?” she asked. 

Unsatisfied with the congresswoman’s response, the crowd chanted “answer.”

“She asked me if I was scared and if I knew what DOGE was doing, and I said ‘no’ to both,” Hageman told the audience. 

Others asked about the Trump administration’s plans to shut down the Department of Education and whether Hageman, an attorney by trade, would vote to impeach judges who rule against the administration as called for by Trump. 

Hageman did not directly answer the impeachment question and said she would support the federal government sending states flexible block grants to fund education as an alternative to the current formula-driven approach.   

One of the more raucous crowd reactions came when someone asked Hageman what she would do to help protect the rights of transgender and non-binary people. 

“I don’t even know what that means,” she said. 

About 52 minutes in Hageman ended the event which had been scheduled for an hour. The congresswoman has met with the press after previous town halls, but didn’t this time.

“I’ll be back in Laramie soon,” she said to more boos. Then she walked off stage and out of the building. 

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After a historic wildfire season, Wyoming lawmakers spent much of the 2025 general session debating whether to fund recovery efforts via loans or grants. Ultimately, the Legislature decided to do both. 

Senate File 152, “Wildfire management-amendments,” designates roughly $49 million in grants for various special districts to restore grasses and habitats, and to prevent invasive vegetation like cheatgrass. Senate File 195, “Small business emergency bridge loan program,” authorizes up to $25 million for short-term loans after natural disasters, including but not limited to wildfires. 

Together the two bills provide slightly more than half of the $130 million that Gov. Mark Gordon requested in the supplemental budget to help landowners restore grasses, replace fences and rebuild structures, among other things. Of the 850,000 acres burned last year, 70% was state and private land. 

Neither bill was originally intended to include such appropriations, but both were amended to do so when the Senate tanked the budget and forced lawmakers to find other vehicles for top spending priorities. 

From the start, Gordon was firmly in favor of grants, warning lawmakers that loans — as favored by the Joint Appropriations Committee — would not be flexible or responsive enough to meet the needs of landowners. 

The governor reiterated that in a letter to Senate President Bo Biteman, R-Ranchester, explaining his decision to let SF 195 become law without his signature. 

“Because the risk of fire can affect many more than one landowner, I believe the best approach to expediting a landscape scale restoration of last year’s burned areas … would be optimally facilitated through grants,” Gordon wrote. “Some landowners might make use of a generous loan program such as the one envisioned in this legislation, but others may not or could not.”

Still, Gordon said he was willing to let the legislation “come to fruition.” 

Once the bill goes into effect July 1, qualifying small businesses will be able to apply for loans up to $750,000 through the Office of State Lands and Investments. The loans will require a 2% origination fee and incur an interest rate equal to the interest rate earned on specified state investments. 

The money can only be used for certain business purposes, such as fencing repair or replacement of livestock and buildings, and it must be paid back to the state within three years. The loans are not limited to wildfire recovery, but are only available to recipients in counties declared under a natural disaster by the governor.

Meanwhile, the ball is already rolling on SF 152.

The process for dispensing the $49 million in grants for special districts has begun, according to Bob Budd, executive director of the Wyoming Wildlife and Natural Resource Trust. 

“I’ve met with the weed and pest districts, and I’ve met with the people who are going to be involved at other levels [like] the conservation districts. I’ve talked with fire folks and everything else,” Budd told WyoFile. “So we’re basically asking for proposals at this point and seeing what level of impact we’re going to need to be ready to address.” 

Time is of the essence, Budd said, to halt the spread of invasive species that threaten Wyoming’s sagebrush and the inhabitants that depend on the native plant. Cheatgrass, in particular, poses a high fire risk since it dries out quickly. That reality is also likely to guide where the grant dollars go. 

“We’re probably not going to have enough money to do everything that we might like to do,” Budd said. “So we need to have, as I have described it, somewhat of a triage system that says, ‘What are the highest priorities if we run low on funding? What do we do and do now?’” 

Budd said he expects his office to have proposals back by April 1. 

When the bill was sent to the governor’s desk it included $100 million in loans for natural disaster recovery efforts. Before he signed it, Gordon line-item vetoed that section to account for the loan program already put into law with SF 195. Gordon also axed a section that would have diverted Energy Matching Funds to pay for the bill’s loan program. 

“These funds are used to support our essential core energy industries as well as to underpin the future of Wyoming’s most vulnerable traditional energy industries,” Gordon wrote in his line-item veto letter to Secretary of State Chuck Gray. 

“After decades of work to put Wyoming in the forefront of innovation to make sure Wyoming coal, uranium, oil, and gas — our core industries that built our schools and secured our state’s financial wellbeing — stay an essential part of any energy future; it seems foolish at best and self-destructive at worst to abandon the very industries that are our lifeblood,” he wrote. 

The bill also restores funds that were depleted in 2024 and authorizes the governor to borrow up to $30 million from the state’s rainy day fund as needed to fight wildfires in the event the reserves are once again exhausted. 

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By any measure, the Wyoming Legislature just completed a transformative session. In the House, the hard-line Freedom Caucus took control of a statehouse chamber for the first time in the U.S. In the Senate, leadership stunned observers when they decided the upper chamber would not pass a supplemental budget — another first for Wyoming.

During the 37-day session, lawmakers adopted a string of measures that could dramatically alter public life in Wyoming. The state is now set to embark on a universal private- home- or religious-school voucher program while doing away with almost all gun-free zones. Legislators passed a major property tax cut with significant implications not just for taxpayers, but for local government funding and services. And they showed an increased willingness to litigate national issues within the state’s borders, approving legislation to crack down on illegal immigration and transgender rights.

WyoFile asked its six staff reporters who covered the session to each share a key takeaway from the session. Here’s what they had to say.

School choice is having a moment

School choice was a popular buzzword in the 68th Legislature, where lawmakers introduced and debated several bills touted as enhancing the rights of Wyoming families to choose where and how their children are educated. 

Those measures included House Bill 46, “Homeschool freedom act,” which frees homeschool parents from what many described as an unnecessary and onerous requirement to submit curriculum to their school district. That bill passed with little controversy. 

The sailing wasn’t as smooth for House Bill 199, “Steamboat Legacy Scholarship Act,” which creates a universal school voucher program in the state. The program offers families $7,000 per child annually for K-12 non-public-school costs like tuition or tutoring. The scholarship also will offer money for pre-K costs, but only to families earning at or below 250% of the federal poverty level (about $80,000 annually for a family of four).

The bill survived dozens of amendment attempts and several challenges to pass through both legislative chambers, and lawmakers reported being deluged with constituent feedback for and against it. Even lawmakers arguing against the bill often noted that they are “all for school choice.”

Its passage is notable as it follows two years in which similar efforts had been shot down by those with constitutional concerns. Gov. Mark Gordon cited those very concerns when he partially vetoed a similar bill last year. 

Opinions appear to have shifted. Gordon lauded this version as a “remarkable achievement for Wyoming,” though it’s expected to face a court challenge by opponents who maintain it violates the state constitution.

— Katie Klingsporn 

Gordon’s erasable, red pen

Headed into session, it remained to be seen how willing Gordon would be to use his veto powers following an election season wherein many of the lawmakers he backed lost their races and the Wyoming Freedom Caucus took control of the House. 

What became clear from week one, however, was the inclination of lawmakers to push back against vetoes. 

As the Joint Appropriations Committee worked the supplemental budget bill on the first Friday of session, lawmakers voted to “override” many of Gordon’s line-item vetoes from 10 months before by adding language struck from last year’s budget bill back into this year’s supplement. 

The move was highly unusual. 

The Senate’s decision to tank the budget sank the added language with it, but the reversal by appropriators was a hint of what was to come. 

At publishing time, Gordon had vetoed seven bills and exercised his line-item veto powers on an eighth. The Legislature attempted to override six of those rejections. Five of those attempts stuck. 

Ten Sleep Republican Sen. Ed Cooper said overriding a veto by the governor is “probably one of the most serious things we do in this body,” as the Senate debated reversing Gordon’s decision to reject a bill requiring a transvaginal ultrasound and a 48-hour waiting period before taking abortion medications. 

“Normally, I don’t do that,” Cooper said. “In fact, I don’t know that I’ve ever done that.” 

But this time was different, said Cooper, who voted with 21 other lawmakers to override the governor’s decision. 

— Maggie Mullen

Blurring the lines on federal immigration enforcement 

The Legislature continued testing the limits of how much a state can involve itself in immigration enforcement — historically the realm of the federal government. 

Wyoming lawmakers passed a bill opposing sanctuary cities and counties, though none exist in Wyoming. And the Legislature adopted a measure that will invalidate driver’s licenses issued to undocumented immigrants by as many as 20 states and the District of Columbia. 

Questions abound about how that law will be enforced and how it might impact Wyoming’s standing with the states whose lawful licenses it will now refuse to honor. 

But amid a political climate where illegal immigration remains a driving animus for Republican voters both nationwide as well as locally, conservative lawmakers made clear they want Wyoming to join President Donald Trump’s drive to deport large swaths of people currently residing in the country. 

That’s what Sen. Cheri Steinmetz told WyoFile after the senate killed a controversial bill she brought to spark a sweeping statewide immigration crackdown. “President [Donald] Trump and other states are taking bold action to crack down on illegal immigration,” Steinmetz said in a statement. “Wyoming should follow suit.” 

The Legislature’s fervor on the issue matches national trends, according to an expert in immigration policy. Both red- and blue-governed states are starting to lean deeper into immigration law, passing bills to make their states less or more welcoming to undocumented migrants and immigrant communities generally.

“States are starting to push the boundary to see how much authority local law enforcement can have,” Colleen Putzel-Kavanaugh, an analyst with the Migration Policy Institute, told WyoFile early on in the session. 

— Andrew Graham

Senate defeats federal land grab

Wyoming senators narrowly defeated a resolution demanding control of all federal land in Wyoming except Yellowstone National Park.

Although Senate Joint Resolution 2, “Resolution demanding equal footing,” was only an expression of Wyoming’s desires, it drew widespread attention and criticism because of similar recent efforts in the West. Consideration of the resolution came in the wake of Utah’s appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court seeking a similar transfer of property in that state.

Sen. Bob Ide, a Casper Republican and commercial real estate developer, claimed that the U.S. Constitution requires the federal government to turn over the public land, which belongs to all Americans. Senators had a constitutional duty to vote for the resolution, he has said.

Opponents of the idea have characterized his view as a misreading of the Constitution. Sen. Mike Gierau, D-Jackson, said that land is of paramount importance to his district. “We hold these lands dear,” he told the Senate. “We hold these lands sacred.”

Sen. Cale Case, R-Lander, another critic of the resolution, said the measure was “probably the most important issue” to his constituents. Americans owning and using public lands is “one of the most fundamental pieces of our Constitution,” he said.

— Angus M.Thuermer Jr.

Controversial wildlife bills beat back in bulk

During the 2025 general session, some Wyoming lawmakers’ desires to affect wildlife management locked horns with others’ unwillingness to tell biologists and wardens how to do their jobs.

A number of controversial or divisive bills succeeded, including a measure reclassifying otters, another upping penalties for wildlife torture and a change in the law that allows the Wyoming Game and Fish Department to regulate guided fishing. 

But on balance, the most hotbutton proposals did not survive.

La Barge Republican Rep. Mike Schmid, a freshman, came out hot-to-trot in proposing House Bill 286, “Mountain lion hunting season-changes,” which sought to completely overhaul how mountain lions are managed across Wyoming. It ran into overwhelming opposition and went nowhere. 

Schmid’s effort to end the practice of running over wildlife with snowmobiles was likewise struck down twice during the legislative session. 

There were also failed efforts to tell Game and Fish — and the federal government — how they ought to manage grizzly bears. One proposal called for hunting grizzlies even if they remained protected by the Endangered Species Act, and another would have banned state wildlife managers from spending any money on the bruins, with a few exceptions. Both were shot down. 

The outcome was the same for a proposal that would have allowed Wyoming landowners to sell special hunting tags they’re granted. Hotly contested, the bill was pulled back by its sponsor, Kemmerer Republican Sen. Laura Pearson. 

— Mike Koshmrl 

Lawmakers favor fossil fuels

Fossil fuels continued to win favor among Wyoming lawmakers, while measures regarding renewables and energy efficiency were mostly punitive, advocates say.

Lawmakers handed surface coal producers a $10 million annual tax break — the second such tax cut since 2022 — and seeded a $10 million fund for those who provide commercial carbon dioxide used to produce more oil. Two other measures aimed at repealing carbon dioxide reduction mandates and outlawing such efforts were similarly intended to boost fossil fuels in an increasingly carbon-restrictive marketplace. One of those bill titles put it bluntly: Make Carbon Dioxide Great Again. Other fossil fuel proponents, however, suggested those measures might actually work against fossil fuel industries, and the bills failed.

Meantime, rooftop solar proponents fended off a perennial attempt to lower credits to homes and businesses that invest in small-scale systems to save money on their monthly electric bills. Rooftop solar proponents pushed their own measure to increase the size of personal solar systems that qualify for so-called net metering — an effort supported by family agricultural operations — only to see it fail at the last minute.

Renewable proponents also helped sink a moratorium on commercial wind and solar projects, as well as a “poison pill” bill that would have required wind energy producers to bury decommissioned wind turbine blades onsite.

Though two efforts to allow the storage of radioactive spent nuclear fuel failed, proponents suggested there’s renewed support for what has long been a divisive issue in the state.

— Dustin Bleizeffer

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