Wyoming Makes Reporting Environmental Disasters Illegal
from the ag-gag-embiggened dept
Techdirt has written several times about so-called "ag-gag" laws, which have the strange effect of making it illegal for members of the public to expose animal abuse on farms. Slate has a fascinating report about how Wyoming is bringing in its own kind of ag-gag law that is so wide in its reach that it could make taking photos in Yellowstone illegal:
photos are a type of data, and the new law makes it a crime to gather data about the condition of the environment across most of the state if you plan to share that data with the state or federal government.
The specificity of that restriction sounds absurd. Why on earth would anyone want to prevent environmental data being gathered? Here's why:
The state wants to conceal the fact that many of its streams are contaminated by E. coli bacteria, strains of which can cause serious health problems, even death.
The reason the state is trying to do that is because the E. coli in question comes from cows, and cows have clout in Wyoming:
Acknowledging that fact could result in rules requiring ranchers who graze their cows on public lands to better manage their herds. The ranching community in Wyoming wields considerable political power and has no interest in such obligations, so the state is trying to stop the flow of information rather than forthrightly address the problem.
The law is framed broadly: it makes it a crime to "preserve information in any form" about "open land" if there is any intention to submit it to a federal or state agency. That means that if you discovered a major environmental disaster in Wyoming, no matter how life-threatening, you had better keep information about it to yourself. As the Slate post points out:
By enacting this law, the Wyoming legislature has expressed its disdain for the freedoms protected by the First Amendment and the environmental protections enshrined in federal statutes. Today, environmentally conscious citizens face a stark choice: They can abandon efforts to protect the lands they love or face potential criminal charges.
Now that's what I call an ag-gag law.
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Filed Under: ag gag, animal rights, cows, environment, free expression, photographs, wyoming, yellowstone
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But if you widely publish the information for all to see, then it's clearly protected. And publications are clearly protected. First amendment and all that... So the law essentially makes it illegal to secretly report disasters only to the authorities?
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I think /that/ would send a nice clear message.
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Bullshit in streams leads to bullshit in legislature.
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Media
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Re: Media
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Re: Re: Media
Though I'd bet on a lawsuit settling that question.
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Re: Re: Media
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Its worse that they, they wish to remain ignorant of environmental problems, so that they do not have to do anything about them.
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Easy workaround
No problem, then. Simply gather the data without planning to share it with state or federal governments. Instead, put it up on the web somewhere and make a HUGE stink in the media about it. That seems like it would be perfectly legal under the law.
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Re: Easy workaround
"(d) As used in this section:
(i) "Collect" means to take a sample of material, acquire, gather, photograph or otherwise preserve information in any form from open land which is submitted or intended to be submitted to any agency of the state or federal government;"
According to this bill, if you don't submit it to the government or intend to submit it, you didn't collect it; so you're not in violation.
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Re: Easy workaround
pun intended?
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Re: Re: Easy workaround
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And they wonder why some people consider them hicks?
I had no idea Wyoming seceded from the United States. Thanks for sharing!
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Re: And they wonder why some people consider them hicks?
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Re: Re: And they wonder why some people consider them hicks?
“to achieve First Amendment protection, a plaintiff must show that he possessed: (1) a message to be communicated; and (2) an audience to receive that message, regardless of the medium in which the message is to be expressed.”
- Hurley v. Irish-American Gay, Lesbian & Bisexual Group 1995 (from here)
Photography with the express intent to distribute to federal and state agencies (or anyone else) falls squarely within that ruling.
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The Fourteenth Amendment means that states can't abridge this right either.
If anyone here is from Wyoming: You need to find out who voted for this, and make sure to never vote for them again, even if you generally agree with them on certain issues. They've shown themselves to be willing to blatantly trample your rights and the environment, to pander to a special interest group. They're not fit to be elected dogcatcher.
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My guess is that at least 25% of the population thinks this kind of law is a good thing because they think it will help them to keep their jobs.
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https://legiscan.com/WY/bill/SF0012/2015
Don't miss this section at the end of the bill: It would appear that even if you did manage to share your data with the news media, Wyoming state officials and agencies would be required to pretend it didn't exist.
Congratulations, people of Wyoming. Willful ignorance is now the law of the land.
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I may have missed it, but I don't see anything in the law that requests or requires the feds to destroy any data they receive. Probably because that would just get the feds to respond with the legally enforceable answer of "fuck off".
But the law does allow the state to punish the people who gathered and reported the data to the feds (assuming that it survives the inevitable constitutional challenge, which I think is highly unlikely).
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the Feds are even worse
http://www.oregonlive.com/environment/index.ssf/2014/09/forest_service_says_media_need.html
h ttps://roadtrippers.com/stories/national-forest-service-will-soon-fine-photographs-1000-for-taking-p ictures
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Re: the Feds are even worse
This is a prime example of why I am loosing faith in the government (or well, pretty much totally lost it actually). A permit cost $1,500 but not having it gives you a $1000 fine? So basically I can save $500 by breaking the law?
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Re: Re: the Feds are even worse
The "word on the street" was that as long as you didn't set up a tripod with a big, expensive looking camera in a national park, you were probably safe ignoring the photography permit requirement.
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Re: Re: Re: the Feds are even worse
Seems to me this is *exactly* how we get into selective enforcement problems....
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Unconstitutional
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Re: Unconstitutional
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Re: Unconstitutional
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Recognition of government
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HAHAHQA
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Re: HAHAHQA
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BS anyone?
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i... i swear i ... is it... did....
wut??!?
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Small Government
Think of all the studies that show diversified thinking results in better decisions. Small gov't ignores that.
Think about a resource-extraction state, like Alaska. Do you think Alaska is "balanced" in their governance when choices are between protecting the environment, and extracting more oil or trees? Well, since most people in the state are paid either directly or indirectly by resource extraction, they get lots of "drill baby drill", and nothing else.
Ever see a mining town that was anti-mining? Iowa is corn first, WY is cows first, Alaska is resource extraction first, and damn the consequences. Great!
This is not an argument for "one world government", much as a stock porfolio diversity plan does not need thousands of stocks. A dozen or more provides adequate diversity. A nation as diverse and as large as the USA has plenty of diversity built-in. But distilled down to the state level, local priorities may be biased by local enterprise.
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Re: Small Government
Voters in NYC would not be in favor of this law, but the law only applies to unincorporated areas, so they also wouldn't be likely to base their votes off of this.
When you elect your Senator or the President, are you going to base your vote on environmental laws, or copyright, or gay marriage, or NSA surveillance, or taxes, or Social Security, or immigration, or gun control, or asset forfeiture, or the TSA, or Obamacare, or No Child Left Behind, or campaign finance laws, or farm subsidies, or transportation funding, or something else? The more things the government is doing, the more you have to hold your nose and vote for someone who agrees with you on only some of them.
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Re: Re: Small Government
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Laws of the "greatest" country in the world
People are horrified about a serial killer who has killed 10 people, but supports laws that protect those killing many more. Brilliant.
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Federal lands?
Part of what makes this story so sad--aside from the bought-and-paid-for politician angle--is the fact that there is clearly no government oversight of these lands, since it's the citizen scientist who's under attack in this law.
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Conflict Potential
Let's say I work on a pipeline (many of which flow through Wyoming) and I witness a spill. Every pipeline worker must have training on reporting Abnormal Operating Conditions, and the law is quite clear regarding mandatory reporting.
A state law that prohibits data collection and reporting vs. a federal law that requires reporting on the exact same incident sounds like a good opportunity to sit back and open up some popcorn.
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So let say. .
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DICKHEADS ARE IN WYOMING
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