Wyoming has a proposed parental rights bill, HB0153. And it is a really good one. Super simple and to the point. Hooray! But don’t get too excited yet. It hasn’t passed yet. It has a lot of sponsors but now you need to do the work to get it approved. Don’t let the work of those who have gotten this on the table go to waste. 
Make sure you let your representatives know that you support this bill and give extra support to the representatives sponsoring this bill while gently requesting that they amend this bill to add that it is also a “privacy” right:
Sponsored by: Representative(s) Jennings, Baker, Biteman, Blake, Brown, Clem, Dayton, Edwards, Eklund, Lindholm, Loucks, McKim, Steinmetz and Winters and Senator(s) Baldwin, Barnard, Bebout, Case and Kinskey
Way to go Wyoming!
How could this bill end Court-Induced Parental Alienation™ and Legal Abuse? This bill could potentially cut off the judges from abusing their power to impose expensive and burdensome procedures for you to keep custody of your child. And if that is the case then well, the other parent doesn’t have to like your decisions and neither does a judge right? Theoretically anyway. Well if the decisions regarding how you raise your child are parent decisions, then it does no good to inflame the judge since it is not the judge’s decision, right? And parents depending on alienation to gain them benefit in the court could not depend on that tactic, at least from this standpoint anyway. The judges will have a bigger barrier to overcome before they start invading your privacy and requiring you to expose all of your private business to them through expensive, abusive, and invasive procedures like evaluations and studies.
It will be interesting to see how this bill carries into translation regarding Chapter 20 Domestic Relations and Child Custody by the family courts in Wyoming.
Remember to continue to communicate to your attorneys that you want representation that protects your rights and that being in disagreement about one issue does not authorize a judge to get involved in all issues. If the statutes do not authorize the judge to take over all rights it makes it that much easier for the parent to get their attorney to argue in favor of protecting their rights. This bill HB0195 would help parents going through child custody battles understand that they can keep the judge’s involvement very narrowly tailored. Insist on your attorneys keeping the judge narrowly focused as possible. And if the statues authorize the judge to take over all rights just because you and the other parent are in disagreement, you will have to learn how to challenge that if that is what you choose to do. You can learn more about your rights and where they come from in our book, “NOT in The Child’s Best Interest.” It will be even easier now for Wyoming residents to use these rights arguments and will have even stronger support using these arguments in their state now!
If you run up against opposition from any lawyer’s groups to this Bill you can argue back that these rights have been established for a long time through case law from the United States Supreme Court and that is controlling even over the state statute and therefore you are entitled to the protection of these rights first, or at least a determination of the rights at issue and the protection due those rights. Get the motions we wrote for asking the court to determine your rights and the protections here. Get a copy of the Pitch sheet for parental rights v1_0 that Michael Turi developed off of our materials and his research here to help you support your representatives who are pushing this bill through for you.
Here is the text of the Bill:
HOUSE BILL NO. HB0153
Parental rights.
Sponsored by: Representative(s) Jennings, Baker, Biteman,
Blake, Brown, Clem, Dayton, Edwards, Eklund,
Lindholm, Loucks, McKim, Steinmetz and
Winters and Senator(s) Baldwin, Barnard,
Bebout, Case and Kinskey
A BILL
for
1 AN ACT relating to parents; providing for a parental right
2 to direct the upbringing, education and care of a child;
3 providing applicability; and providing for an effective
4 date.
5
6 Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Wyoming:
7
8 Section 1. W.S. 14-2-206 is created to read:
9
10 14-2-206. Protection of parental rights.
(a) The liberty of a parent to direct the upbringing,
13 education and care of the parent’s child is a fundamental
14 right.
2 (b) The state, or any agency or political subdivision
3 of the state, shall not infringe the parental right as
4 provided under this section without demonstrating that the
5 interest of the government as applied to the parent or
6 child is a compelling state interest addressed by the least
7 restrictive means.
8
9 (c) This section shall apply to any state or local
10 law or ordinance and its implementation whether that law or
11 ordinance was adopted prior to or after the effective date
12 of this section. Any statute adopted after the effective
13 date of this section is subject to this section unless it
14 explicitly states that this section does not apply by
15 reference.
16
17 (d) Nothing in this section shall be deemed to apply
18 to a parent whose parental rights have been judicially
19 terminated.
20
21 Section 2. This act is effective July 1, 2017.
22
23 (END)
You can download the entire bill here. HB0153
If you want to follow-up on the bill and understand the status of the bill, go here.
This bill has many sponsors, house representatives and senators. You can locate all of the contact information for all of the legislators in Wyoming here.
*We are not attorneys. You should seek the advice of an attorney for questions regarding the technical procedures for protecting your rights.
