CHEYENNE – Judge Alan Johnson of the United States District Court for the District of Wyoming approved a settlement in Brophy v. Maxfield today, halting the enforcement of a two-year aggregate contribution limit under Wyoming law. The settlement ends a lawsuit filed by Wyoming Liberty Group attorneys in July that challenged the aggregate limit as a...

CHEYENNE, WY – Judge Alan B. Johnson of the United States District Court for the District of Wyoming approved a settlement in the case Wills v. Maxfield today, issuing a consent order that halts enforcement of certain campaign finance laws against minor party and independent candidates and their contributors. The order comes a few weeks after the W...

(Disclaimer: This blog post contains photographs of political signs. Wyoming Liberty Group is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that cannot, and does not, endorse candidates. We can, however, champion the rights of free people to speak out about candidates, including through political signs.) We won our lawsuit in Williams v. City of Cheyenne earlier this year...

Since the United States Supreme Court denied certiorari in our case Free Speech v. Federal Election Commission (that is, declined to hear the case), one of the issues raised in the case has only become more pressing. We argued that three men in Wyoming who wanted to spend as little as a few thousand dollars on ads criticizing the President and othe...

Of the 249 juveniles incarcerated in Wyoming in 2011 (the most recent year with data available), 42, or 16.9 percent, were jailed for offenses that are not considered criminal in any other state. Rather than being jailed for violent crimes, such as assault and battery or robbery, or property crimes, such as theft, these youths have been incarcerate...

During a tour of the Laramie County Juvenile Services Center with Tim Thorson and Captain Michael Sorensen I observed some trends that were further supported by data provided by the JSC. Through Mr. Thorson and Captain Sorensen I received a hard copy of the Overview of Laramie County Juvenile Services Center for fiscal year 20131 which provided the...

Sometimes it is difficult to show how the First Amendment and campaign finance reform are relevant to most Americans. But recent statements from a leading advocate of reform illustrate the significance of these issues. In April, the Democracy Alliance gathered in Chicago to discuss how best to shut down conservative policies. At the April meeting, ...

Earlier this year, after being contacted by Tim Thorson, I toured the Juvenile Services Center in Laramie County. Mr. Thorson is a member of the Laramie County Community Juvenile Services Joint Powers Board, which oversees many aspects of the Juvenile Services Center. Upon our arrival, Mr. Thorson introduced me to Captain Michael Sorensen, who is i...

The Wyoming Department of Family Services (DFS) has proposed legislation to reform the current Child in Need of Supervision (CHINS) system to a Family in Need of Supervision (FINS) program. The underlying premise of FINS (sometimes called Families in Need of Services, Persons in Need of Services or PINS) as enacted in many other states including Ar...

Over at the Wyoming Liberty Group, I've written extensively about campaign finance reform and its danger to the First Amendment. Through Republic Free Choice, I'd like to examine this theme a bit more deeply. John Adams once expressed the familiar phrase that ours is a "government of laws and not of men." This statement means that in a free society...