Judges make the law in this country due to our common law system. The law from 1885 may say that fencing off legally accessible land is illegal, but according to the land owner the supreme court said corner crossing is illegal so the fence in this situation would not count, because it wasn't blocking legal access. The question that matters here is whether corner crossing is allowed, the fence question follows.
It absolutely is not. Corner crossing was literally illegal right up until this decision came out. Using fences to enforce that was absolutely allowed since the public land was technically not accessible. This is far from the first case about corner crossing, hopefully it will be the last.
Yeah no, this is what I called out in another thread. Corner crossing is legal, because making it so they can’t corner cross (or otherwise access the land) is illegal - The Inclosures Act of 1885. But the locals want to pretend the federal law doesn’t exist, because it lets them defacto capture this public federal land.
Still doesn’t make what the hunters did illegal, or what the rancher did legal. But it’s why it got to this point.
The Inclosures act had never been taken to court in relation to corner crossing before this case. Wyoming had a long history of corner crossing being illegal. That may have been contrary to the inclosures act, but as I said, we have a common law system. Until a judge says the current interpretation is wrong that's the law. So sure, corner crossing may have been "legal" since 1885, but only if you had the resources and knowledge to bring a case to federal court so you can get the wyoming corner crossing law overturned. Until that happened it was not legal.
I mean this is the same as countless supreme court decisions. Was gay marriage legal prior to Obergefell? No, obviously not. The ruling was based on a law that has been in existence since the civil war, but until the judges interpreted that law it did not matter.
Federal law overrides state law. It’s Article VI, Paragraph 2 of the constitution, if you want to double check.
Where federal law says it is illegal to block access to public lands, it is illegal to block access to public lands. Even more so when we’re talking federally owned public land.
There is no law (or judicial interpretation) that Wyoming can pass that is constitutional to change that.
Here is a cite, which you haven’t provided any supporting you case, clearly stating as such, regarding the Inclosures act and someone playing similar games - around 1893. That instance was in Colorado, but was sustained by the Supreme Court and applied nationally.
If you have an actual cite to an actual applicable case, please do post it. The earlier link literally agrees with me, as the judge cited the Inclosures Act when dismissing the claims that corner crossing was illegal.
