What's The Deal With The Judiciary?
It's time for judicial reform in Wyoming.
Last week a Wisconsin judge was arrested for sneaking an illegal immigrant out of her courtroom in an attempt to help him hide from ICE agents.
A former New Mexico judge was also arrested for sheltering a fugitive member of the Venezuelan gang and designated foreign terrorist organization Tren de Aragua.
Since President Trump took office in January, Americans have witnessed an unprecedented number of nationwide injunctions issued by activist judges in an attempt to thwart his America First agenda.
Under the U.S. Constitution, lower federal courts are creations of Congress— they have jurisdiction over limited kinds of controversies and historically have refrained from exercising power over the whole country.
Disturbingly, this hasn’t stopped woke judges from engaging in national security and foreign policy decisions.
American confidence in our judicial system hits historic lows with every poll— and it’s no different in Wyoming.
Wyoming Needs a New Bench
Our nation’s founding fathers wisely constructed the American form of government to feature three distinct branches of government, each able to check the other two.
When the president appoints a federal judge, the people, through the U.S. Senate, have a say in whether that person should make it to the bench.
This isn’t how it works in Wyoming.
Our system uniquely shields judges from a public confirmation process and even hands much of the appointment process to the Wyoming Bar Association.
Article 5, Section 4 of the Wyoming Constitution creates the Judicial Nominating Commission, comprised of 3 governor-appointed members and 3 bar-appointed members. These individuals provide the governor with a list of three names, one of which must be sent to the bench.
Governor Gordon recently appointed his own Attorney General to the Wyoming Supreme Court through this process.
Why This Matters
By outsourcing the initial nomination process to the Wyoming Bar Association, the pool of possible judges is severely limited, and not in a good way.
Many of the Bar’s most active members have openly advertised their Left-wing politics by filing bar complaints against and penning woke letters to Wyoming’s lone Congresswoman Hageman over rightfully expressing concerns over the rigged 2020 presidential election.
A lack of public buy-in to the judicial selection process has left Wyomingites feeling confused, upset, and blindsided by the decisions reached by many on the bench.
Judges are Legislating From the Bench
Instead of resolving legal disputes, Wyoming judges are more frequently than ever making policy proclamations in their orders.
Last spring, a Gordon-appointed Teton County judge made shockwaves when she declared abortion to be a constitutional right, referring to pregnant mothers as “pregnant patients” during oral arguments in her courtroom.
Just days ago, a retired judge struck down a different law to require surgical abortion centers to have the bare minimum safety standards of any other surgical center in Wyoming, claiming again from the bench that abortion is a constitutional right.
Earlier this year, Laramie County judge Froelicher held that the Wyoming Legislature has unconstitutionally underfunded public schools. In his 186-page opinion, he went so far as to stipulate that in order to properly fund education, the state must purchase more laptop computers- specifically, one for every enrolled child.
Free Speech is Under Attack
A family in Gillette is being sued by a former government employee after raising concerns over pornographic materials in their local public library— as is their right and duty as decent Americans. The judge in that case is allowing the lawsuit to move forward.
Attorneys representing the women of the Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority have been sued by the male who invaded their female-only space for “embarrassing” him.
A judge in Sweetwater County has allowed a meritless defamation case to continue against the WY Freedom PAC over election mailers containing candidate voting records.
What Now?
The Wyoming Freedom Caucus is committed to restoring integrity in state government, including within the judiciary. For far too long, the judicial branch has been seen as untouchable, outside the realm of criticism.
As our founders knew well, all human institutions are capable of corruption. It’s time for judicial reform in Wyoming in a way that gives the people a stake in our bench.
It's disturbing to me that there is no public accountability for Wyoming’s judicial system. There is no easy way for citizens to review a judges rulings without paying for the court records. We don't have a way in our state to easily check on the rulings judges have made in order to know their leanings and if they are judicial activists like Owens. So no public accountability. I agree that the system needs to change and for heaven's sake the corrupt bar association needs to NOT be involved at all. That's like the good one boys/girls club that only protects its own. Fox in the hen house for sure. An overhaul is in order. Good luck with that!
We need to have Judges that have the beliefs and morals of the vast Majority of Wyomingites. Keep up the Great work that you do. It should be illegal for the judges to rule against common since. Parental rights, Life of unborn babies, deporting criminals out of our country, protecting our borders, getting rid of entitled federal workers that are not dong their job and the list goes on. Keep up the good work.