Wyoming incarcerates more juveniles per capita than any other state in the country, with the exception of South Dakota. According to the Annie E. Casey Foundation (AECF) report entitled Youth residing in juvenile detention and correctional facilities, Wyoming currently ranks 49th with only South Dakota higher at 50th in juvenile incarcerations. The...

Will it leave citizens freezing in the dark? Back in 2012, Wyoming Governor Matt Mead announced that Microsoft would build a $112 million data center in Cheyenne. Since then, Microsoft announced two data center expansions, for a total investment of about $450 million. Sounds great, but is it? Data centers move here because, in addition to taxpayer-...

Steve Klein speaks with KGAB's Gary Freeman about the changes to Wyoming Campaign Finance law, required after the Supreme Court's decision in McCutcheon v. Federal Election Commission. June 6, 2014 – KGAB. 

SHERIDAN, WY – Wyoming Liberty Group attorney Steve Klein testified before the Joint Corporations, Elections and Political Subdivisions Committee today, his second appearance before the committee in their two-day meeting. Klein testified in favor of amending the Wyoming Election Code to comply with the recent United States Supreme Court decision Mc...

SHERIDAN, WY – Wyoming Liberty Group attorney Steve Klein testified before the Joint Corporations, Elections and Political Subdivisions Committee today at their first meeting before the 2015 Legislative Session. Klein testified in favor of changes to the Wyoming Election Code that relate to collecting signatures for ballot petitions. "Under the Wyo...

AUSTIN, TX – Wyoming Liberty Group attorneys filed a friend-of-the-court brief today on behalf of WyLiberty and the Center for Competitive Politics in Texas v. DeLay. The brief is the second filed on behalf of both organizations, discussing the free speech implications of a criminal case with origins over a decade old. "In 2002, Tom DeLay and sever...

Back in 2012, Governor Matt Mead announced that Microsoft would build a data center in Cheyenne at a cost to Microsoft of $112 million. Since then, Microsoft has announced two expansions. Supporters cheered that the data center would diversify the economy and, according to Gov. Mead's press release, "bring high-paying, technology jobs to the state....

On May 13, I gave short testimony about the problems with civil forfeiture in Wyoming at the Joint Judiciary Committee meeting in Rawlins. The Legislative Service Office is preparing two potential committee bills for the committee to consider at its next meeting in July in Newcastle. The first bill, if it is adopted by the committee and passes the ...

According to the Wyoming Department of Education, Wyoming will not be receiving a waiver renewal from the United States Department of Education for the 2014-2015 school year, and this is ultimately a good thing. This means the state will operate under the dictates of No Child Left Behind (NCLB), a federal education mandate developed by President Bu...

According to the Wyoming Department of Education, Wyoming will not be receiving a waiver renewal from the United States Department of Education for the 2014-2015 school year, and this is ultimately a good thing. This means the state will operate under the dictates of No Child Left Behind (NCLB), a federal education mandate developed by President Bu...

RAWLINS, WY – Wyoming Liberty Group provided information to the Joint Judiciary Interim Committee as it considered legislation that would regulate the use of unmanned aerial vehicles-commonly known as drones-by law enforcement agencies. "Drones are quickly becoming smaller, more efficient, cheaper and common," said Steve Klein, WyLiberty staff atto...

RAWLINS, WY – Wyoming Liberty Group staff attorney Steve Klein testified before the Joint Judiciary Interim Committee today to detail the potential for property rights abuse by police because of civil asset forfeiture in state law. "The Controlled Substances Act allows the government to take property without ever convicting the owner of a crime," s...

Time to add some drag to the line The Game and Fish (G&F) department provides us with a cautionary tale about what happens when an agency's mandate creeps from "the protection, propagation, preservation and distribution of Game animals, birds and fish of this State," to "conserving wildlife—serving people," which could mean pretty much anything...

Last week we filed a supplemental brief in Free Speech v. Federal Election Commission (FEC), a case that we brought on behalf of a small Wyoming grassroots group against the speech regulators in Washington, DC. We're hopeful that our case will be heard, because the issues we raised nearly two years ago when we filed suit have only become more press...

In 2010, the website PolitiFact called Republican claims that Obamacare is a "government takeover" of healthcare the "Lie of the Year." Last year, PolitiFact gave the title to President Obama's claim that under Obamacare "If you like your health care plan, you can keep it." Obviously, PolitiFact's authority over what constitutes a "lie" is question...

CHEYENNE – Wyoming Liberty Group attorneys filed a supplemental brief with the United States Supreme Court today in the case Free Speech v. Federal Election Commission (FEC), discussing recent events at the FEC and how they should impact the Court's review of Free Speech's case. "Since this case began nearly two years ago, the FEC has insisted that...

This year's parade of electoral horribles is out again. Every year that the Supreme Court hears a challenge to campaign finance laws a small band of self-titled reformers cry out in customary despair. These last two weeks have been no different following the Supreme Court's decision in McCutcheon v. FEC. McCutcheon asked whether the government coul...

If Wyoming needed a better reason to begin removing itself from the entanglement of federal education funds, here it is. In a recent article, Cato's Neal McCluskey points out what many Common Core critics already know about the federal government's involvement in Common Core - it's not going to be a one- time occurrence. Federal government meddling...

Next month (May 12 and 13) the Joint Judiciary Interim Committee will meet in Rawlins in the first of three meetings between the 2014 and 2015 legislative sessions. One of the topics they will address is drones, more technically known as unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) or unmanned aerial systems (UAS). I appreciate the committee taking this up, sin...

CHEYENNE – Wyoming Liberty Group attorneys delivered a letter to the Wyoming Secretary of State and Attorney General today, asking them to immediately cease enforcement of a provision of the Wyoming Election Code that limits aggregate political contributions in state elections to $25,000. The letter follows a decision by the United States Supreme C...