Amid mounting concerns about White House disregard of court orders, Wyoming’s congressional delegates made clear last week that they continue to support President Donald Trump’s defiance of the federal judiciary.
And they are willing to insult their own constituents in defense of that position.
Rep. Harriet Hageman and Sens. Cynthia Lummis and John Barrasso publicly derided a distinguished swath of the Wyoming Bar while dismissing concerns those constituents raised in a March 26 letter warning that Trump and his allies’ threats could erode the country’s rule of law.
Wyoming’s federal delegation lashed out at the letter’s signees the same week federal judges warned that the Trump administration was striking at the core of the constitutional system that protects Americans from an unruly or oppressive government.
The more than 100 Wyoming jurists who put their name on the letter asking the delegation to protect the rule of law included three former state Supreme Court justices, an ex-governor, two former state attorneys general appointed by governors from both political parties, veteran attorneys and young Wyoming lawyers making their start in the profession.
Among the names were those of Republican and Democrat politicians and the former law partner of Rep. Harriet Hageman’s husband. Though their leanings covered the political spectrum, they shared one thing in common: Mounting concern that the rule of law is under extreme duress.
In response, Lummis, Hageman and Barrasso described the signatories as “biased, misguided” and “liberal,” in a press release issued last week.
The delegation’s response came in two phases — the first was an April 11 letter rebuffing the Wyoming jurists’ concerns. Overreaching judges, not President Donald Trump’s threats, have placed the federal judiciary in the crosshairs, the delegation wrote.
That letter ended with an olive branch. “We look forward to working with each of you to secure a prosperous future for Wyoming and to ensure a return to the non-partisan rule of law,” the delegates wrote.
On April 15, however, after WyoFile reporting made their letter public, the delegation dropped any niceties and issued a press release headlined: “Wyoming Delegation Responds to Biased, Misguided WY Judges and Lawyers.”
The delegate’s letter itself was “extremely dispiriting,” Jackson attorney Bill Schwartz, one of the letter’s signees, told WyoFile on April 17. But he had not yet seen the press release.
“Well, that’s just preposterous,” he said, when a reporter described it to him. “These are very accomplished lawyers, from every part of the state, that went to the same law school as [Lummis and Hageman] did… Many of us know at least one of the delegates. And we know they know better.”
The delegation’s answer has dismayed the letter signers, who saw in it deeply worrying signs for the country’s democratic rule.
“We are, in my judgment, in very dangerous times,” Jackson attorney Bob Schuster wrote in an email to his fellow signees. “My concerns are only heightened by the cynical and unprincipled response from our Congressional delegation,” he added in the email obtained by WyoFile.
The three politicians, for their part, say they’re responding to “liberal former judges and lawyers attempting to publicly pressure the delegation into falsely condemning President Trump and allowing judges to continue blocking the agenda more than 70% of Wyoming residents support,” according to the press release.
In today’s Wyoming politics, “if you have an independent thought sometimes that makes you a liberal,” Gillette attorney Tom Lubnau said. As a Republican politician, Lubnau served in the Wyoming House from 2004 to 2014, rising to become Speaker of the House in his final term.
“I’m going to take every opportunity I have to defend our court system and our constitutional system,” Lubnau told WyoFile. “Do I think the system is perfect? No. Do I think it’s the best system man has devised? Yes.”
Lummis, Hageman and Barrasso did not respond to interview requests from WyoFile.
Lawyers and former judges who signed the letter say that even in the more restrained portion of the delegate’s response, the politicians misstated fundamental tenets of American law. Though disheartening, the delegation’s response has galvanized the letter’s signees to continue speaking up, and has led other Wyoming jurists to reach out and offer support, Schwartz said.
The delegation issued its response during a week of ongoing clashes between the president and federal judges over the rights of migrants detained by the Trump administration and shipped to a prison in El Salvador.
On Wednesday, a federal judge in Washington, D.C. issued an order suggesting he could soon begin proceedings to hold the Trump administration in contempt of court. Trump had called for that judge, James Boasberg, to be impeached after Boasberg issued an injunction temporarily halting the president’s use of the Alien Enemies Act to detain people.
Trump invoked the act to justify his administration’s imprisonment of Venezuelans and other Latin Americans in El Salvador, without court hearings. The act was last used during World War II, when it led to the infamous internment of Japanese-Americans, including at Heart Mountain in Wyoming.
The Heart Mountain Wyoming Foundation has also called on the delegation to check Trump’s use of the Alien Enemies Act. “The misuse of the Alien Enemies Act at that time makes us particularly sensitive to any future abuse of the law,” the foundation wrote in an April 1 statement.
The delegates did not respond to that message, though it was delivered to each of them, officials from Heart Mountain Wyoming Foundation told WyoFile Monday.
Concern over Trump’s suggestion that Boasberg should be impeached was central to the Wyoming jurists’ letter to the delegation. The signees called on Hageman, Barrasso and Lummis to speak against the idea that a judge could be personally targeted for a ruling the president didn’t like. Trump’s threat also drew a rare rebuke from U.S. Supreme Court Justice John Roberts.
The George W. Bush appointed chief justice said Trump was challenging two centuries of precedent, and that “impeachment is not an appropriate response to disagreement concerning a judicial decision.”
What’s at stake is far broader than the rights of those now imprisoned in El Salvador under Trump’s invocation of wartime powers, according to the signees of the letter to Wyoming’s delegation.
Schwartz, the Jackson attorney, and others pointed to a Thursday ruling and admonition penned by conservative, Ronald Reagan appointed judge Harvie Wilkinson, as an example of their concerns.
“The government is asserting a right to stash away residents of this country in foreign prisons without the semblance of due process that is the foundation of our constitutional order,” Wilkinson wrote. “This should be shocking not only to judges, but to the intuitive sense of liberty that Americans far removed from courthouses still hold dear.”
“If today the Executive claims the right to deport without due process and in disregard of court orders, what assurance will there be tomorrow that it will not deport American citizens and then disclaim responsibility to bring them home?” he continued.
Lummis on Thursday labeled Boasberg’s injunction pausing the deportations to, and imprisonments in, El Salvador as “one of the most shocking examples” of judicial overreach during the Trump administration.
“Boasberg ordered planes full of dangerous illegal aliens and alleged Tren de Aragua gang members to turn around mid-flight and return to the United States,” Lummis wrote in an opinion column published by Cowboy State Daily.
In the first three months of Trump’s presidency, judges have issued 15 nationwide injunctions on federal policies, Lummis wrote, one more than they did throughout the entirety of President Joe Biden’s term. “We must remember that judges are not policymakers – and they have not been elected by the American people to legislate. The people of Wyoming deserve a government where their elected representatives make the laws,” she wrote.
Her fellow Wyoming Bar members say she’s being disingenuous at best.
“You would think that any reasoned response to our letter might have paused to consider one of the first cases any of us read in our Constitutional Law course — Marbury v. Madison,” Schuster, the Jackson attorney, wrote in his email to colleagues.
That 1803 case established that the courts can find that laws passed by Congress and executive actions are unconstitutional. The delegation, Schuster continued, is arguing that “the Court really did not mean what they said and that its 222 years of lasting precedent … is vaporous.”
The fact that these 3 elected people can disregard and disrespect 100 Wyoming leaders who hold diverse perspectives is astounding. Even if they disagree there should have been recognition of these legal minds and constituent opinions. The disregard for the rule of law and decorum is heartbreaking.
“And they are willing to insult their own constituents in defense of that position.” And the author supposes that only Jacksonites are the “constituents” of our Washington reps. What arrogance. I am personally tired of attempts at schooling me as a WY citizen about the Constitution. You few legal eagles are a small group. Why did not the over 1000 other WY attorneys and judges join you? Because you do not speak for Wyoming people. Our Washington representatives do.
For the record, when was the last time that Barrasso, Lummis, and Hageman had anything bad to say about the US 5th Circuit Court of Appeals, and the state courts that populate its docket ? The Fifth covers all of Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi. It is by far the most conservative of the circuitsextremely so. Which is why so many Christian class lawfare and Freedom Caucus issues cases get filed there. It’s the Republican’s Go-To bench for their activist judges.
But you never hear that brought up much , do you ?
Lummis wrote “The people of Wyoming deserve a government where their elected representatives make the laws”. Congress has passed 5 laws. Trump has issued 130 Executive Orders. Looks more like a King.
I am disgusted, trying not to be profane. A man and 2 women who pretend to represent us. Licking the legs of a man who has been accused and convicted of federal crimes and puts our nation in danger every day.
Believing in, practicing, and standing for the rule of law is “liberal”? Have Lummis, Barrasso, and Hageman ever read the US Constitution? Didn’t they once promise to uphold the law? Hageman, Barrasso, and Hageman are breaking the very laws and promised to uphold, professed reverence for, but clearly practiced little. How dare they feel entitled to chastise judges who’ve upheld Wyoming and US law from their velvet thrones? They’re assuming a rapist and felon will save them and pad their bank accounts in thanks. These 3 are breaking many laws and making a mockery out of the ideals, laws, and traditions of our country. Clearly they never understood the gravity of their oaths in the first place. A special place in Hell, indeed.
And they are completely accurate in saying so.
No Ms Lummis, judges are not policy makers. Let’s all give her a rousing standing ovation for that bit of information!!
Maybe someone will instruct her next on what their jobs actually are!! Getting so incredibly sick of stupid people with power.
According to Wyoming’s delegation, apparently, the word “liberal” now encompasses being in favor of the rule of law. Something they clearly no longer support.
It’s true that our country was riding off in the wrong direction. As both political parties came under corporate control, driving us further and further right, the rest of the civilized world took care of its people. The US serves wealth, not labor. That road is a dead end.
When trump is gone (hopefully, sooner than later), we the people need to elect representatives who are going to put guardrails in place to protect us from this kind of tyrannical and corrupt cabal from taking over ever again. trump surrounds himself with weak people and opportunists – they all need to be held accountable for what they’ve done. I’ll be supporting politicians who make that promise.
Take a close look at these three goofballs. They have insulted us and are working to harm the public. There actions (worshiping the orange menace) are to keep themselves in office. They have disrespected the jury system and the jurors. Trump was convicted, not by a judge, but by a jury of his peers.
They have also disrespected many federal employees with their heartless remarks. They themselves are government employees, and we all know that they are worthless to the citizens of Wyoming.
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
“He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, ”
Just a few of the grievances listed in the Declaration of Independence, any of them look familiar?
Please provide a link to the press release, I proudly signed the letter and have been in weekly, sometimes daily contact with the “ delegation” about the issues addressed. I encourage all Wyoming citizens to do the same, phone calls or emails, be respectful but speak the truth to power. Use your voice! We can’t give up!
Wyoming’s delegation is the see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil tchotchke incarnate. How unfortunate.
Shame on them. They would set the Constitution on fire if it meant getting Trump’s support
I cannot fathom the ig.. thoughts in our delegates! They Need To Again Read The Constitution They Swore to Uphold!!! They Cannot Be So Partisan And Blind to the Regime they are protecting!!! Wanting to Take Away Everything That We Hold Dear!!! Shame Shame Shame Shame@!!!!!!!!
Good evening Family, Brothers, Sisters of these United States of America, I really enjoyed reading this article and all the comments concerning the President of this Republic and the Defender of the Constitution of these United States of America. Unfortunately it seems some Americans have forgotten how this CONSTITUTION come into being and how it is and was defended AGAINST ALL ENEMIES FOREIGN AND DOMESTIC and take American lives including their own BUT! Someone has to be on guard for the tranquility of this Nation Under God and Constitution.
It’s an awful day when such activities taken place by our elected President and not KING of this Republic/Nation because of the ENEMY(IES) within our nation’s walls… I am excited to see the days when the SEDITIONISTS, TREASONOUS SABOTEURS, SYMPATHIZERS are collected and brought to American JUSTICE not B.A.R. JUSTICE then of course there are the sympathizers and collaborators to bring to attention according to their influence of the objective to destroy this Republic Nation.
Yes I pray that these Americans are safe and God places a protective hedge of protection around them and in the meantime “We the people” return to reading and understanding the meaning of being an American of these United States of America ESPECIALLY those who are being enjoined with the domestic enemy of this Republic.
Most of the world is not of a Republic and are essentially domestic indentured slaves and can or will be permanently eliminated at the bequest of that nation’s King…
They are required to follow their King’s Law regardless of their opinion because if not it is TREASON NOT TO and death is their destination.
My Family, Brothers, Sisters and neighbors be careful for what you believe is Constitutional and Lawful because our DOMESTIC ENEMY is closer than your imagination could imagine and to some of “We the people” they ARE family, Brothers, Sisters and neighbors and are surgically identified and at best mercy shown and given them their choice to destruction rather this Republic Nation Under God. Thank you for lending me your eyes to have read this far.
your manifestos are getting more and more incoherent.
They should stay in their place. Mind their own business. Maybe just take a day off. Please.
Dangerously arrogant, Hagerman thinks SHE knows what’s best for Wyoming. Talks down to constituents and outright lies. I attended one of her speeches. When one respectful resident asked about the
veterans who had been wrongfully fired from government jobs, she mumbled “I support our veterans.” Then lied about Plans to go after Social Security. She seemed surprised that some Wyo. Residents care about what happens in our nation’s capitol.
Our delegation needs to be replaced. They are not loyal to their constituents, nor the rule of law. Congressional members say they are afraid to oppose Trump. We need to elect those that have a back bone. I understand he can be very vindictive. Nonetheless, where has courage gone.
I agree, they have become Washington’s representatives in Wyoming, and they need to go!
As far as courage? Just look at what the voters of Wyoming did when Liz Chaney showed us one of the few backbones in Washington. Sadly until Wyoming voters quit voting against their own interests, we will get the representation we deserve.
I have to ask whether anyone of these 3 has an even slight conscience. How do these and many others void any ethics and morals they had to go with Donald, the felon??? Follow the Money??? Also, I have to ask, is Orange Man going bald or is it just the photos???
Thanks again for another well written and very informative piece Andrew.
Once again the Wyoming delegation is showing their true colors. It’s now very obvious that their constituents mean nothing to them until it’s time for re-election. Barrasso, Lummis, and Hageman continue to become more and more un-American in their blind defense of this president and his reckless, misguided, and dangerous agenda.
What should be obvious to every Wyomingite is that the interest of the United States of America should come before any political party, and definitely before any single person in the oval office. While our judicial system is currently under attack, along with our universities, our financial system, our military, and the federal government itself by the Trump administration, our “representatives” refuse to acknowledge the seriousness of the problem they’ve helped to create by failing to take a stand against a president who’s pushing the constitution to its very limits.
I’m hoping that some of the signatories of the letter to Lummis, Hageman, and Barrasso are considering running against them in upcoming elections. Wyoming, and this country need some good DECENT people in Washington and I feel anyone on this list would serve our state well in that respect. Anyone who had the courage to publicly stand up to this disgustingly corrupt administration, irregardless of their political affiliation, has my deepest respect.
It has become more obvious that many Republican legislators at both the Federal and state level no longer believe in the basic premises on which this nation was founded. King George III would have loved these guys, who would likely have fought on the British side. They no longer support the triad of governing defined by the Constitution and most importantly “Rule of Law” or even simple Habeas Corpus that is fundamental to a free society. What is most amazing, is that as they strongly support Fascism as the dictator executive takes over and they become insignificant. They, like most sad MAGA folks, work aggressively against their own status and well being.
Soon enough, it will be team orange denied their due process, and suddenly they’ll understand why so many good and respectable people call barrasso, lummis and hageman feckless cowards.
Time to re-read the poem, WY; the author was a Lutheran Pastor and early rightwing Nazi sympathizer, who then spent 8 years in a concentration camp… he kinda reminds me of WY’s freedom caucus and Federal reps:
First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a socialist.
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.
Thank you!
Our three federal representatives have stated that the Wyoming delegation of 100 that signed the letter that our ex judges ex Governors lawyers, etc. are liberal. Definition of being liberal. Liberalism is a political and moral philosophy based on the rights of the individual liberty, consent of the governed, political equality, the right to private property, and equality before the law. And our representatives are an against this. They back a lawless felon who does everything he can to get around laws and the constitution with all his attorneys ,disgraceful.
Dear Wyoming Senators Larry, Curly, and Representative Moe,
Can you think of someone in government (though not really, because we’ve never been told what his position actually is) who is unelected, wasn’t born in the United States and currently wields more power than any judge?
It’s not a trick question.
Wyoming’s Congressional delegates are wrong for blaming the judiciary in Trump’s actions out side the laws of this country. When elected leadership ignores a country’s constitution and laws you have anarchy the dictatorship. Trump is not above the law and elected people who support this lawless action are not above the law. First they ignore existing laws protecting the people’s rights and freedoms, then they create their own laws to take those rights and freedoms away from from the very people who elected them. Then you have China, North Korea, Russia, Iran and many other dictatorships where the people no longer are free.
I must let you know that I am not some far left liberal but I am a conservative who made a mistake and voted for Donald Trump. But I have not given up or will I give up my freedom of speech or any other rights give to me by the Constitution and Bill of Rights so long as I am a citizen of the United States of America.
By their comments and actions, Barasso, Lummis, and Hageman have violated their oaths to protect the Constitution, especially its foundation of separation of powers. It’s time to find their replacements in the next election–assuming that we’ll have elections.
They are with the 5-time draft dodge, 6 time bankrupt Cowboy Way. Disingenuous to say the least.
Hmmm…these three [Barrasso, Hageman, Lummis] are “smarter than the average bear”?
There are none so blind as those who will not see.
Our delegation likes to harp on the fact that judges are not elected, so they should not decide policy. Then they turn around and defend DOGE’s actions to define policy even though none of its members were elected.
Consistency is not their strong point.
Our Wyoming State delegation is loyal to Trump, not the law or the constitution. When Republicans stand up for core values, they will regain my respect!
Sincere thanks to the many respected jurists who wrote and signed the cautionary letter. It’s heartening to know that some of the smartest people among us are also brave enough to speak truth to power.
These three voted for the SAFE Act, voted to sell Wyoming’s federally protected lands and are supporting Trump’s attacks on the judiciary. It’s time to primary them. Where are reasonable, competent professionals willing to challenge these dinosaurs? I truly hope they are out there.
Please, vote these clowns out of office, and impeach the orange menace.