IP: Wyoming sheriffs impose severe limits on federal enforcers!

[Dave Farber <farber () cis upenn edu>]

> Date: Sun, 2 Jan 2000 12:20:20 -0800
> To: Recipient List Suppressed:;;;;Recipient.List.Suppressed:;@well.com;;;;;;;;
> From: Jim Warren <jwarren () well com>
>
> A forward of a forward from a friend.  Source unknown; ACCURACY UNKNOWN
> (but it should be easy enough to check, since the U.S. District Court
> decision is cited).
>
> If true, it would seem to have some "interesting" potentials for *all*
> sorts of state control over federal enforcers and perhaps even federal
> surveillance operators -- IRS, DEA, NSA, FBI, BATF, Customs inspectors and
> collectors (Wyoming borders Canada), etc.
>
> --jim
>
> >     County sheriffs in Wyoming are insisting that all federal law 
> enforcement
> > officers and personnel from federal regulatory agencies must clear all their
> > activities in a Wyoming county with the Sheriff's Office.  Speaking at a 
> press
> > conference following the recent US District Court decision (case No 2:96-cv-
> > 099-J) Bighorn County Sheriff Dave Mattis stated that all federal
> > officials are
> > forbidden to enter his county without his prior approval.
> >
> >     "If a sheriff doesn't want the Feds in his county he has the con-
> >     stitutional power and right to keep them out or ask them to leave
> >     or retain them in custody."
> >
> > The court decision came about after Mattis & other members of the Wyoming
> > Sheriffs' Association brought a suit against both the BATF and the IRS 
> in the
> > Wyoming federal court district seeking restoration of the protections
> > enshrined
> > in the United States Constitution and the Wyoming Constitution.  The 
> District
> > Court ruled in favor of the sheriffs, stating that,
> >
> >     "Wyoming is a sovereign state and the duly elected sheriff of a
> >     county is the highest law enforcement official within a county and
> >     has law enforcement powers exceeding that of any other state or
> >     federal official."
> >
> > The Wyoming sheriffs are demanding access to all BATF files to verify
> > that the agency is not violating provisions of Wyoming law that prohibit the
> > registration of firearms or the keeping of a registry of firearm 
> owners.  The
> > sheriffs are also demanding that federal agencies immediately cease the
> > seizure
> > of private property and the impoundment of private bank accounts without
> > regard
> > to due process in state courts. Sheriff Mattis stated,
> >     "I am reacting to the actions of federal employees who have at-
> >     tempted to deprive citizens of my county of their privacy, their
> >     liberty, and their property without regard to constitutional
> >     safeguards. I hope that more sheriffs all across America will join
> >     us in protecting their citizens from the illegal activities of the
> >     IRS, EPA, BATF, FBI, or any other federal agency that is operating
> >     outside the confines of constitutional law. Employees of the IRS
> >     and the EPA are no longer welcome in Bighorn County unless they in-
> >     tend to operate in conformance to constitutional law."
> >
> > This case is evidence that the Tenth Amendment is not yet dead in the
> > United States.  It may also be interpreted to mean that political 
> subdivisions
> > of a State are included within the meaning of the amendment, or that the
> > powers
> > exercised by a sheriff are an extension of those common law powers which the
> > Tenth Amendment explicitly reserves to the People, if they are not 
> granted to
> > the federal government and specifically prohibited to the States.
> >
> >
> > Case: Castaneda v. USA
> > Filed: 10th May 1996
> > Closed: 29th April 1997
> >
> >
> > Case No: 2:1996cv00099 Wyoming District Court, Casper
> > Nature of Suit: Civil Rights