The Wyoming Supreme Court on Jan. 6 declared Wyoming’s abortion statutes unconstitutional.
Rather than address the constitutionality of the statute, some legislators would rather burn down our court system by changing how we appoint judges and justices.
This abortion law mess didn’t erupt from nowhere.
It came from years of incompetent legislating, blame shifting and political grandstanding, while lawmakers dodged the harder work required to pass a constitutional amendment.
When legislators debated the abortion bills, they knew those were unconstitutional. Their peers warned them. The public warned them. Those warnings surfaced in their own floor debate. Commentators and pundits described the problems with the bill. Two district court judges later called the abortion statutes unconstitutional.
In September 2024 I wrote a two-part column calling the new abortion statutes “word salad:” hard to interpret and poorly drafted.
I warned, then, “When these statutes reach the courts, as they already have, you will hear legislators claim it is ‘activist judges’ who are asking hard questions about these statutes. The truth is legislators long on campaign slogans and short on legislative draftsmanship did not pass cogent laws.”
In November 2024, I explained the lower-court’s abortion decision – the one that set up the appeal that ended last Tuesday – and how the Wyoming Constitution made healthcare a fundamental right in Wyoming.
In January 2025, I wrote that the abortion bills were mostly political theater — designed to create election issues; not a serious attempt to outlaw abortion.
In April 2025, I argued the Legislature needed to quit pussyfooting around, trust the voters, and put a constitutional amendment on the ballot.
The chickens have now come home to roost. Most of those predictions have come true.
I’m not going to rehash the Supreme Court’s opinion here. If you care about this issue, read it yourself and study the court’s detailed analysis.
Rather than read and understand the opinion, critics of the opinion are now cherry-picking arguments to attack the court. Those critics ignore the carefully-considered opinion and pick the facts that support their position, while ignoring all the other factors that produced the decision. Some are saying the Court “has the blood of hundreds of babies on its hands.”
Then, those opponents use that position as a justification to meet behind closed doors, to develop a plan to reorganize our third branch of government into a subsidiary of the legislature designed to do lawmakers’ bidding.
These same legislators who could not craft a cogent bill are now trying to crater the three branches of government our founding fathers fought so hard to create.
Current efforts to reorganize the court system are a shame.
The Wyoming Supreme Court doesn’t get to pick its cases. It doesn’t roam dark alleys looking for statutes to strike down. Litigants bring cases. They frame the facts. The Legislature writes the laws. The voters decide what rights are guaranteed in the Constitution.
Whether the justices personally like the result or not, they are obligated to decide the cases in front of them based on the law and the record — not on politics, personalities, or speculative fantasies about what “must” have happened.
Their decisions are not based on political ambitions (although there are those legislators who want to change the Wyoming Supreme Court into a political body). Their decisions are not based on the personalities involved (although there are those elected officials who would prefer special treatment because of who they are). And the decisions are not based upon some speculative version of the facts (although some legislators would prefer decisions based on speculative fantasy).
The people of Wyoming deserve a government of laws, not of men. We deserve a court system that is not a slave to the Freedom Caucus or any other faction.
We need to resist this silly, dangerous coverup by inept lawmakers to blame everyone but the person in the mirror.
And we need to understand, next election, that a good legislator is not some bellicose loudmouth spouting political phrases in church like a high school braggard – reminiscing about glory days, but someone who can craft carefully considered constitutional legislation that meets the needs and desires of the voting public.
We need to elect skilled statesmen, not blowhards.
Tom Lubnau served in the Wyoming Legislature from 2004 to 2015 and is a former Speaker of the House. He can be reached at: YourInputAppreciated@gmail.com
