A gentle moment. The old rural Catholics. A bit much. The old age refuses to yieldeth. The stubborn German.

A gentle moment

I was standing in the confession line behind her.  A young man came up behind me.  I realized, as I'd come in and went straight into line (I'm now 62, and well aware of my sins) I'd cut him off, as he came up from praying in the back of the church.

I immediately said "I cut you off, you can go in front of me", but he smiled and said "It doesn't matter".

She was nicely dressed, wearing a full length skirt and a nice one.

He reached around me and handed her something, which I thought was a handkerchief (she did in fact have a cold).  It wasn't, it was her mantilla She put it on.

I thought they were likely brother and sister.  He was very nicely dressed and they were both young, in their early 20s.

When I left, they were in different quarters of the church praying.  I recognized her now that I could see her face.  She's one of the "Mantilla Girls", but one I see rarely.  I didn't recognize him.  They were in fact, not together.  He just noticed she'd dropped her mantilla.

The old rural Catholics

I was wearing, on the day of confession, Carhartt trousers and my very old Carhartt jacket.  I hadn't shaved.  

It was Saturday.

I don't like shaving.  I started shaving when I was 13, and by that, I mean at some point when I was 13 I was shaving every day.  Next year I will have been shaving for 50 years.

When I was 13, I learned to save with a "safety razor".  I, in fact, owned a safety razor at age 13.  I first shaved with disposable head razors in basic training.  It was only a few years later, but there's a lifetime between 13 and 18.

I've recently received, in one fashion or another, a couple of reminders to Catholics in general that they ought to dress appropriately at Mass.  It is, I'd note, sort of a Catholic thing in a way, in some areas, kind of not to.  Not that we're intentionally dressing down, but for a lot of us going to Mass is so common that we in fact dress down, as its Sunday.  In some regions, we don't dress up and indeed, as we're used to going to Mass with college students, blue collar workers, sheepherders, ranchers, lawyers, doctors, businessmen, well, we don't.

The local Priest suggested we ought to dress nicely.  He's from a farm and had a conversation with me regarding sheep on the way into Mass recently.  Fr. Joseph Krupp, who himself often looks a little like a guy who might ride a Harley, and I think at one time did, suggested the same.

They're right of course.

Well, it was Sunday today.  I went to Mass wearing Carhartt trousers and my very old Carhartt coat.

The coat is warm.

A bit much

I sometimes see comments about yoga pants.

I don't pay much attention to such comments.

I ran into the very nice, and quite Catholic, son of a person I know very well the other day.  He's a nice young man.  He was with his girlfriend, who is probably a nice young woman. She is the daughter of an Assemblies of God minister.

She was wearing yoga pants.

They were so tight that, frankly, they left nothing to the imagination.  Absent wearing bikini bottoms, there would have been nothing less appropriate to wear in mixed company than I could imagine. 

And its January.

Makes me appreciate the Mantilla Girls all the more.

The old age refuses to yieldeth

At Mass, to my massive discredit, I ran into somebody, but only remotely, who generally irritates me.

That's probably sinful on my part.

I've known said person my entire professional life.  I knew his sister when we were in high school by which time I'll note he was already a lawyer.  She was a great person and I still lament her tragic death as a passenger in an automobile when it wrecked.  I knew, but less well, one of her sisters who died in the same wreck.

Horrible.

Anyhow, the person in question must have graduated high school nearly a decade in advance of me, which means that he must be over 70 years old now.  He's still actively practicing law.

I've concluded that this is toxic, if you are doing it full time, to your personality.

I also don't like that he holds his hands in the air when certain prayers are said, and he's huge so its hard to ignore.  That's the orans position, and in actuality there's good reason to do that.  That's what the early Christian faithful, who were all Catholics, did when the Lord's Prayer was said.

Well, I don't like it.

And that means I need to work on this.

I'd note that his fellow doesn't particularly acknowledge me at Mass, but then I don't go out of the way to acknowledge him either.  If we run into each other in Court, well. . . we're old pals.

The Mantilla girl and the young man, and the cowboy couple I noted several weeks ago, are better than either of us.

The stubborn German

Germans, it appear, have a reputation for being stubborn.

I have what people perceive as being a very German last name.

I have a very Irish first name.

I've never thought this odd, but then, who thinks their own names odd. For one reason or another, I've always considered myself an Irish American.  

My father didn't like anyone considering himself this or that.  No Hyphenated Americans.  He thought we were all Americans. He'd grown up, I'd note, while World War Two was on, when nobody considered themselves German Americans.

Some people are really proud of that now.

Well, by decent today, I'd be 1/4 German. But genetically, due to the weird way that works, I'm more Irish than a lot of people who live in Ireland.  And for that matter, I'd further note, my father's mother was of 100% Irish extraction, and in Irish American household even when my father was young, the mother's ruled the abhaile.

Father's sacrificed for their families, particularly in Catholic families.

The last name, fwiw, is Westphalian.  A person with it is just as likely to be Dutch, as German.  I was once asked by an Albertan if my ancestors were Dutch, for that reason.  Westphalia became a Prussian possession in 1807, much to the discontent of Catholic Westphalians, who weren't keen in being ruled by a Lutheran emperor. After the revolutions of 1848 a lot of Westphalians departed for the United States, sick of being rules by an undemocratic Prussian.

My Westphalian ancestors left about that time.  I don't know why, they didn't write it down.

Anyhow, genetically, I'm Irish.  

And in my ancestor there were those Irish who, given the choice between converting to Protestantism and keeping their occupation, ro being exiled, chose exile.

Stubborn?

I don't think I am, but I guess people perceive me that way.  I've been told that more than once.

German?

Not really.

Work with meaning and the meaning of work.

You see, in this world there's two kinds of people, my friend: Those with loaded guns and those who dig. You dig.

Blondie, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.

I have a theory that certain work is existential by nature.  My post on that from several months ago:

A conversation with an old friend. The Good Death, and the Good Life and Existential Occupations.

Why do I note this?

Well I've had a bunch of synchronicitous events happen recently that perhaps demand it being noted, assuming that anything must be noted here at all.  Because they're all sort of circular, I'll start in one spot and gather the round corral, noting that these recollections are all recent, but not chronological.

I was walking out of the sporting goods store and ran into a law school colleague.  For some reason or another, for much of my life, I've always been the youngest person in a group as a rule, even when I really shouldn't have been.  Anyhow, this fellow, like two other of my law school friends, was an older law student, in law school, although I'm not sure how old he really was then,  Two of my other friends, both Vietnam War era veterans, were in their 40s, so they're in their mid 70s now.  I think this fellow was probably in his mid to late 30s.  He remained remarkably the same looking all that time.

He kind of bounced around at first as a lawyer before landing in a firm where he practiced for maybe 20 years.  He's retired now, and has been for awhile.  He asked me if I was getting ready to retire, which I indicated I wasn't, but I did ask him about the process, and he gave me some details of how he'd gone about it.  

Good to know from somebody who has done it.

He doesn't miss practicing at all.

In contrast to this, a close friend of mine, well really a relative, who is a lawyer who must be crowding 70 told me the other day he's not going to.  He'd miss the collegiality of being a lawyer.

That answer shocked me.  Not that he wasn't going to retire, but the collegiality.

Eh?

It may be just me, but only a handful of my friends are lawyers.  I do have some lawyer friends.  But most of my friends aren't lawyers and never have been.  I wouldn't miss most lawyers whatsoever.  Indeed, I miss a lot of my genuinely close friends due to the practice of law.

This, frankly, is probably an exception to the rule.  Law is a unique profession, litigation with in the law even more so, and by and large the onliy people who have a grasp on what it is like are other lawyers.  It is, I suppose, kind of like being a combat veteran that way.  Lawyers hang out with other lawyers as they're lawyers.  

Indeed, being heavily introverted, I've often noted how much lawyers enjoy professional gatherings. They really do.  There are organizations that we're all part of and we'll go to a conference and there will be a big dinner or something, everyone goes.

Unless my spouse is with me, or one of the few lawyers I really know well and like, I tend to avoid those gatherings.

Anyhow this takes me to a second point.

I know a couple of lawyers who have lost their souls.

I don't mean in a metaphysical sense.  That is, I'm not saying they're condemned to Hell.  What I'm saying is that their personalities are gone and been absorbed by false ones in the pursuit of nothing more than money.

It happens to people.  It's not a pleasant thing to see.  

I was never friends with either of the ones I have in mind.  Interestingly, however, one seems to be trying to emerge.  One, who sank into this a long time ago actually started talking to me the other day about what he was going to do "next", something he's never said before.

A really good lawyer friend of mine is mostly retired.  Like the fellow I mentioned above, while he had his doubts, he hasn't missed the practice at all.

Another good lawyer friend of mine, a woman, is trying to transition from one practice to another.

Two women I know otherwise recently lost their jobs. They weren't lawyers.

I note that as I think women in particular are subject to the Capitalist lie that careers are existentially defining, a completely modern notion.

St Paul was a tent maker.  St. Peter a fisherman.  I don't know if there are any classic Medieval or Renaissance paintings of St. Paul making a tent, but there should be.

Why do I note that?

Well, for this reason.  You don't think much about St. Paul being a tent maker as his occupation didn't define him.  His sainthood did.  

But a lot of us moderns sure have made our occupations define us.  And women are very much doing so now.

This takes me back to the item I linked in above.

In this case, unlike my uncle, he was much younger.  My age, in fact.  I hadn't seen him for many years, and before his troubles really set in.  He hadn't been able to adjust to them well.  The most common comment from people, none of whom were surprised, was that his torment was over.

I don't have any big plans, like one of my friends, for retirement.  I hope to be healthy, and just become more of an agrarian-killetarian than I presently am.  Funny thing is that recently I've been running into people who claim "you're looking really good". Somebody asked me the other day, indeed at the funeral gathering, "you're working out", the question in the form of a statement.  Not really.

Indeed, I've gained some weight I seemingly just can't lose, which I think is the byproduct of my thyroid medicine, which has made me hungry, and I know that I'm not in the physical condition I was before my recent health troubles commenced.  People close to me just won't accept that, which brings me to the other side of the retirement coin noted above.  Some lawyers I know are already planning for me to work into my 70s, as that's the thing to do, apparently. Long-suffering spouse, for her part, won't say something like that, but from an ag family, she doesn't really accept the concept of retirement anyhow.  Having said that, I wouldn't plan on my retiring from the ag operation either.

It finally occured to me, however, what's different about agricultural jobs as opposed to others, at least if you are an owner of the enterprise or part of it.  The occupation itself is existentially human.  It is, if you will, an Existential Occupation, or at least it is right now. The mindless gerbil like advance of "progress" may ruin that and reduce it to just another occupation.

Existential Occupations are ones that run with our DNA as a species.  Being a farmer/herdsman is almost as deep in us as being a hunter or fisherman, and it stems from the same root in our being.  It's that reason, really, that people who no longer have to go to the field and stream for protein, still do, and it's the reason that people who can buy frozen Brussels sprouts at Riddleys' still grown them on their lots.  And its the reason that people who have never been around livestock will feel, after they get a small lot, that they need a cow, a goat, or chickens.  It's in us.  That's why people don't retire from real agriculture.

It's not the only occupation of that type, we might note.  Clerics are in that category.  Storytellers and Historians are as well.  We've worshiped the Devine since our onset as a species, and we've told stories and kept our history as story the entire time.  They're all existential in nature.  Those who build certain things probably fit into that category as well, as we've always done that.  The fact that people tinker with machinery as a hobby would suggest that it's like that as well.

Indeed, if it's an occupation. . . and also a hobby, that's a good clue that its an Existential Occupation.

If I were to retire from my career, which I can't right now, I wouldn't be one of those people who spend their time traveling to Rome or Paris or wherever.  I have very low interest in doing that.  I'd spend my time writing, fishing, hunting, gardening (and livestock tending).  That probably sounds pretty dull to most people.  I could imagine myself checking our Iceland or Ireland, or fjords in Norway, but I likely never will.

That's more than I really need for my point here, but it ties in, this way.

Most careers are just jobs. They're an industrial way of separating you from your homes to make money for somebody else, in exchange for which you make some money too.  This was done to men first, and then with the "women's liberation" movement of the 1960s, women drank the KookAide and have been wondering when the good feels will arrive.

They won't.

Most jobs have no greater existential meaning than that.  If you define yourself by them, you are defining yourself as a fiction.

Which is why I worry about the lawyers who collapse into the cartoonish litigation personality.  It makes you a cartoon, and not a very interesting one.

It's also why lawyers who become deep dive into the Whaling For Justice personality, or something like it, sort of boil off the people they were and become somebody nobody is interested in.

And I also think that's why old lawyers have a hard time retiring.  After selling your life away, is this it?  It must be. This must be it.  I must love this as otherwise. . . .

I will note, and strongly, that I'm not advocating here for something that seems to be a current rage.  Don't get any post high school education and hope for the best.

Indeed, the advocates of that, don't mean that.  They mean don't forget to look at occupations where you work with your hands.

Now listen to me, all of you. You are all condemned men. We keep you alive to serve this ship. So row well, and live.

Quintus Arrius, Ben Hur.

The truth of the matter is that we sell our lives for a living, but we shouldn't sell our souls.  A lot of career propaganda emphasis the nifty life you are supposed to have, but not the risk of losing your soul, and here I mean in both senses.  Being able to sell the minutes of your life away for a decent return means that you need to have skills of some sort that are valuable.  People should try to acquire those if for nothing else their own protection.

Women, I'd note, are particularly vulnerable here.  A woman with a professional degree, such as law, is armed against loss of employer.  A woman who doesn't have some sort of valuable skill is at the mercy of her employer.  They're the ones who lose their jobs readily, and who are subject to all sorts of risks.  

The trick, I guess, is to get those skills and remember that we shouldn't lose who we are.

One group of people who tend to make that career choice are people who work for the government. They're often grossly underpaid, but they also tend to have weighted the options and elected towards "quality of life".  Lawyers who work for the AG's office, or biologists who work for state and Federal agencies provide such examples.  

Interestingly, people on the outside in the same fields tend to hold these people in contempt.  I guess people working 80 hours a week to make a go of it are naturally resentful towards those who do not.  But those people are often very dedicated to their professions and even more purist than those who sell their labor in the private market.  A dear cousin of mine who recently died was one such example.  She was a research biologist at a university.  

We're about to head into a Federal administration here that seems to contain a contempt to government employees.  Indeed one recent campaign featured somebody who wants to limit the amount of time you can work for the Federal government.  The same campaign repeatedly noted the candidates rural roots.

The rural roots are real, but what an irony.  Descending from homesteaders means that you descent from the biggest American welfare program ever, one that used the U.S. Army to violently expel land occupants due to their race, to hand it out to European Americans.  Don't mistake my point, I love agriculture and regard it as an existential occupation, and if I'd been alive when you could have homesteaded, I would have.  But people who loved the land so much they fought for it, and lost, had the moral high ground on that, and those who came in behind them benefitted from the Federal largess and murder.

If you work for a living, why do you kill yourself working?

Tuco, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.

Genesis tells us that since we sinned in the Garden, we've condemned ourselves to work.  But it's also obvious that work was always part of the plan.  It's interesting how well this comports to how evolution and societal development worked.  We were likely a very happy group as aboriginals, and we know now that depression and modern angst is unknown in hunter gatherer societies.  But we ate from the tree of knowledge and acquired it, 

Well, now we have to work.  Make the best of it.

The law and Christmas.

Years and years ago, opposing council in a case, who was significantly older than me, remarked to me "remember when we used to all close down on Christmas and remain closed until January 2, we'd go duck hunting. . . "

Well, no, I didn't remember a time like that.  I asked an older partner if he remembered that, and he didn't either.

I don't think it really happened.

Quite frankly, the law has sort of ruined Christmas in some ways for me, or it conspires to do so most years.  Last year, 2023, was an exception as I did get a lot more time off than usual, and we went to Hawaii, coming back on December 24.  I think I took Boxing Day off as well, and some time later that week.

Most of the time I do try to take Boxing Day off.  I didn't this year.  I worked.  

For that matter, I worked December 28th and 29th as well.  Only the afternoon of the 29th was taken off, and part of that was spent running errands, some connected with work.

One of the things that happens at the end of the year is you try to get all of your end of the year projects done and end of the year bills.  It's frantic, quite frankly, and a big and tiring effort.  Yesterday reminded me of that.

To clients, every project is hugely important. But to civil litigators, who tend to also have civil practices, that's not really the case.  All projects for your regular clients are major projects. All big litigation is too. These take absolute priority, as they must.

Everyone, in contrast, has some small projects that come in the door. One off matters that are basically favors to somebody, or sometimes very tiny projects that come in as somebody asks to whom you cannot say no.

I had a tiny one towards the end of the year this year.  It evolved, as they always do, into a more complicated one than I initially thought it would be, involving me opening two court files to deal with it.  The parties were in a hurry, and we expedited it. There's no way for the clients to know how difficult this really is, and the extent to which a lot of lawyers, myself included, strive to make this as economic as possible for the clients.  Frankly, we lose money doing them, which is almost impossible for the actual clients to realize.

When it was completed, which was in December, the client started calling right away for a bill.  I get that, but in the scheme of things, reviewing the bill, and unlike the protagonist in The Firm, I review and correct every single one, takes time.  Briefs take time.  Answering complaints takes time.  Drafting complaints takes time. So I didn't finish it.

Yesterday (this was drafted on December 27) I was working on complaints, answering and prosecuting, in some extremely complicated matters.  The client dropped in.  "Where's the bill?".

This requires me to stop what I'm doing and try to mark it.  I.e., I'm going through hundreds of pages of contractual materials (think, if you'd like, of the paper review scene in Clueless), put some sort of marker on this in an electronic form, and turn my attention to this matter.

Which I did.

In fact, as it was small, I just told my bookkeeper to bill the cost, the rest is pro bono.

Work out great on Boxing Day?

No, not really.  The client didn't have the money to pay the costs and asked to make arrangements.

Oh well.

I'll note that the law intervenes in other ways as well, which it likely does in other professions.  If you work in a place for a period of years, particularly in a professional office, those you work with are with you more than other people and most firms have some sort of Christmas tradition, a part, and then usually a professionals gathering for a celebratory lunch or something.  I missed the party this year as I'd scheduled depositions that day.  I just forgot what day it was on.  And I was extremely sick by the time I came home.

The lunch of the professionals is on Christmas Eve, or rather the day before Christmas.  I've become more tense about such things as I've grown older, but we've all grown older.  We take the afternoon of the 24th off, but in my case, what that means is trying to get home in time for early Christmas Vigil Mass.  Christmas is, after all, "Christ's Mass", and that's very much how I view it.  Given that, I feel weird having a couple of drinks at noon.  I forget that for a lot of people, the connection with Christianity is muted and its a secular holiday to a large degree.

Bookends

I probably should have guessed, but I didn't.

I'd never met him before, and couldn't even place him in the set of people related to people I knew.  He was, or is rather, the grandson of a rancher I've known for eons, but I'd never seen him at a rural gathering.  He was dressed in a rural fashion, with the clothes natural to him, but wearing a ball cap rather than a cowboy hat.  I probably was too.  It was unseasonably cold, I remember that.

He was holding forth boldly on what was wrong on higher education.  All the professors were radical leftist.  

I figured he was probably right out of high school, in part no doubt as I'm a very poor judge of younger ages.  It was silly, so I just ignored him, although I found his speech arrogant.  The sort of speech you hear from somebody who presumes that nobody else has experienced what you have. ¹  I.e., we were a bunch of rural rubes not familiar with the dangerous liberals in higher education.

I figured he'd probably get over it as he moved through education.  

Yes, there are liberals in higher education. Frankly, the more educated a class is, the more likely that it is at least somewhat liberal.  That reflects itself in our current political demographic.  The more higher education a person has, the more likely they are to vote for the Democrats.  It's not universally true, but it's fairly true. And the Republicans, having gone populist, which is by definition a political stream that simply flows the "wisdom of the people", is a pretty shallow stream.  Conservatism isn't, but it's really hard to find right now.

I heard earlier this year that he'd obtained a summer position in D.C. with one of our current public servants there, and thought that figured, given the climate of the times.  Recently, his grandfather told me he'd just taken the LSAT.  

I didn't quite know what to say.  

I didn't have any idea he was that old.  And I didn't realize that was his aspiration.  I asked his progenitor if being a lawyer was his goal, and was informed that it was.  I did stumble around to asking what his undergraduate major was, thinking that some have multiple doors to the future, and some do not.

"Political science".

"Well, he doesn't have any place else to go then".²

Not the most encouraging response, I'm sure.

I've known a few lawyers that were of the populist political thought variety, but very, very few.  Of the few, one is in office right now, but I didn't know that person had that view until that person ran.  One is a nice plaintiff's lawyer who holds those views, but it's not his defining characteristic, like it tends to be with some people, and he's friends with those who don't.  One briefly was in the public eye and has disappeared.

He's going to find that most law professors, if you know their views at all, and most you won't, aren't populists.  Some are probably conservatives, and most are liberals.  A defining characteristic of the Post GI Bill field of law is that it's institutionally left wing.  As I've often noted before, there are in fact liberal jurists, but there really aren't "conservative" jurists in the true sense, in spite of what people like Robert Reich might think.

I suspect politics is the ultimate goal. By the time he's through with law school, and has some practice under his belt, the populist wave will have broken, a conservative politics will have reemerged and liberals will be back in power.³

So I hope that he likes the practice of law, as that's what law school trains you to do.  Not to save the world.  Not to "help people".  Not to provide opportunities for people who "like to argue".⁴ 

I'm not holding out a lot of hope.

Recently, I ran this:

June 25, 2024

An article on Hageman's primary challenger in the GOP:

Democrat-turned-Republican challenges Wyoming’s Harriet Hageman for U.S. House seat

Helling has a less than zero chance of unseating Hageman.  What this item really reminded me of, however, is just how old these candidates are.  Helling is an old lawyer.  His bar admission date is 1981, which would make him about 70.  Hageman's is 1989, which I knew which would make her about 61, old by historical standards although apparently arguably middle-aged now.

Barrasso is 71.  Lummis is 69. John Hotz, who is running against Barrasso, has a bar admission date of 1978 which would make him about three years older than Helling.  Seemingly the only younger candidate in the GOP race this primary is Rasner.

This isn't a comment on any of their politics, but rather their age.  Helling is opposed to nuclear power, a very 1970ish view.  With old people, come old views, quite often, even if they're repackaged as new ones.

Right after I ran it, I went to a hearing where one of the opposing lawyers is approaching 70 and supposedly is getting ready to retire, but doesn't seem to be.  Right after that, I was in a court hearing in which there were two younger lawyers, but a host of ones in their late 60s or well into their 70s.  One of the late 60s ones appeared to be stunned and noted that there was at least 200 years of legal experience in the room.

I was noticing the same thing.

Lawyers have a problem and that's beginning to scare me, not quite yet being of retirement age.  I'm not sure if they don't retire, can't retire, don't think they can retire, or something else.

It's not really good for the profession, I'm sure of that.  While it's a really Un-American thing to say, a field being dominated in some ways by the elderly pushes out the young.  And it's also sad.

It's sad as it's usually the case that younger people have wide, genuine, interests.  Lawyers often, although not always, give a lot of those up early on to build their careers. Then they don't go back to them due to those careers.  By the time they're in their late 50s, some are burnt out husks that have nothing but the law, and others are just, I think, afraid to leave it.

I think that's, in part, why you see lawyers run for office.  Maybe some are like our young firebrand first mentioned in this tread.  But others are finding a refuge from a cul-de-sac.  A lawyer who is nearly 70 should not become a first time office holder, and shouldn't even delude themselves into thinking that's a good idea (or that it's feasible).  They should remind themselves of what interested them when they were in their 20s.  The same is true of office holders in general who are in their 70s, or older.  

Footnotes:

1.  I've often seen this with young veterans and old ones.  Some young veteran will be holding forth, not realizing that the guy listening to him fought at Khe Sanh or the likes.

2.  That wasn't the most politic thing to say, but I was sort of hoping that the answer was "agriculture" or something, that had some more doors out.  

Political science really doesn't.  Maybe teaching.  But if our young protagonist graduates with a law degree and finds himself not in the world of political intrigue making sure that the American version of Viktor Orbán rises to the top, but rather whether his client, the mother of five children by seven men gets one of them to pay child support, which is highly likely, he's going to have no place to go.

3.  Bold prediction, I know, but probably correct.

Right now, I suspect that Donald Trump will in fact win the Presidential election, and the country will be in for a massive period of turmoil.  By midterm, people who supported Trump will be howling with rage about the impact of tariffs and the like and demanding that something be done.  The correction will come in 2028, but by that time much of the damage, or resetting or whatever, will have been done.  The incoming 2028 Democratic regime will set the needle more back to the center.

4.  Being good at arguing, in a Socratic sense, makes you a good debator or speaker.  Liking to argue, however, just makes you an asshole.

Monday At The Bar: Well-Being Week in Law 2024

Well-Being Week in Law 2024

May 6-10 marks Well-Being Week in Law 2024, a nationwide week raising awareness about how well-being, and the lack of it, impacts the practice of law, legal ethics, client outcomes, and law firm profitability. All programming is free and available through the Wyoming State Bar’s social media pages. Follow the Member Well-Being Page on Facebook, play Bingo, and check out the State Bar’s updated and refreshed Well-Being Resource pages, filled with resources for Wyoming attorneys, judges, law students, and all legal professionals. Many thanks to firms, other employers, lawyers, and all the legal professionals working around Wyoming on improving well-being in the profession.

Lex Anteinternet: The Uniform Bar Exam, early tell of the tape. And now the late one.

Lex Anteinternet: The Uniform Bar Exam, early tell of the tape.: One of the threads most hit upon here is the one on the Uniform Bar Exam .  As folks who stop in here will recall, Wyoming's adoption of...

It is, quite frankly, a freakin' disaster. 

We've had this now for years, and the quality of new lawyers had declined noticeably.

And recently, the list of bar admittees featured something interesting.  The vast majority of new admittees aren't located in Wyoming.  And they don't want to.  They only want to take Wyoming work, and the work of other states, remotely, while not really appreciating the state they're practicing in.

It'd be supremely easy to fix.  Just add a Wyoming component, like we used to have.

But we're not going to do that.

Related threads:

Labor and the conglomeration of everything.

Oh great. . .as if the Colorado flood wasn't enough. . .

Monday At The Bar: Lex Anteinternet: The Uniform Bar Exam, early tell of the tape. Revisited Again.

So. . . why doesn't the ABA oppose the Uniform Bar Exam?

Monday at the Bar: The ABA and the UBE

Wyoming Adopts the Uniform Bar Exam, and why that's not only a change, but a bad idea

Why Law School Should Be an Undergraduate Program — Minding The Campus

Why Law School Should Be an Undergraduate Program — Minding The Campus: In most parts of the world, lawyers are formally trained in an undergraduate degree program. The Bachelor of Law (LL.B), is also an accelerated three-year curriculum. In the United States it takes over twice as long. First you need a 4-year undergraduate degree in any subject—a gratuitous requirement, as there is no such thing as […]

Thoughts?

There's something to this suggestion, particularly since law school has become essentially a trade school, as that's what the law is now, a trade.

But it shouldn't be, which might be why law school shouldn't be either. 

Monday at the bar. The Fanni Willis Saga

FWIW, the profession of law is sufficiently corrupt that questions such as can you have "relations" with your clients, opposing council, and the like, have been debated, and generally the profession has not precluded them, which is therefore to license them.

All the angst over Willis therefore really doesn't arise in a legal context, but in a public servant context.

Perhaps it should arise in a legal context, but generally, it doesn't.

The Agrarian's Lament: A sort of Agrarian Manifesto. What's wrong with the world (and how to fix it). Part 5a. What would that look like, and why would it fix anything, other than limiting my choices and lightening my wallet? The Distributist Impact. The Professions.

The Agrarian's Lament: A sort of Agrarian Manifesto. What's wrong with th...:   

.

 

We'll look at that a bit later.  Let's turn towards the agrarian element next.

So we said last time and now, well now we're not doing that.

The reason is that I didn't really dwell on this topic, and it matters.

In the era in which I was a kid, up through my kid's early years, if I needed to go to a physician or dentist, they were local, usually with individual practices.

With physicians, that's now radically changed.  My physician is the same one I had twenty years ago, but his practice is part of a larger practice that covers two cities.  They had to do that in order to continue to really keep operating, and there were other consolidations prior to that.

The local hospital was owned by the county. There's been complaints about it since I was a boy, but not like there are now. The County Commissioners sold it to a national company.* 

Thirty years ago, when I was first practicing law, all of the law firms were Wyoming firms, something that was reinforced by the fact that we had a state specific bar exam.  The Supreme Court sold us down the river on that, with there being a persistent rumor that this was to aid a struggling UW law school.  The admission was made "transportable" in that a person passing the Un-informed Bar Exam in another state could simply pay their toll and practice here.  That transported much of the work to Colorado.  Over time, that, and technology, have destroyed small town practice to the extent that many small towns and cities in the state no longer have lawyers in many significant areas of practice.  One major I80 city in Wyoming will soon lack any lawyers doing civil litigation or serious general civil work.  When I started, and I'll note at that time that city was in extreme economic distress, it had two major law firms doing that work within it.

So this is an aspect of Distributism that would change things as well, and which could very easily be implemented simply be restoring a state specific bar exam.  Better yet, residency requirements of some sort should be implemented. Beyond that, the corporate packing up of the professions, like the corporate packing up of retail, could and should be eliminated.

That would restore local professions.

And that restoration would be that professionals in this area would quite frankly make less, but have more stable practices, which would benefit their clients/patients for the good of all.

Last prior:

A sort of Agrarian Manifesto. What's wrong with the world (and how to fix it). Part 5. What would that look like, and why would it fix anything, other than limiting my choices and lightening my wallet? The Distributist Impact

Footnotes.

*The dissatisfaction is epic, and the County ought to file suit to get it back.  It won't, but it should.

Mid Week At Work. Cat games.

 EXCLUSIVE Travers Smith associate dismissed after complaining that a client 'sold him flea-ridden kittens'

The Transitions Issue.

The February 2024 issue of Wyoming Lawyer was exceptionally good.  Its focus was on "transitions", by which it mostly meant career transitions (but also had some articles on the scary advances of AI).

The magazine usually good, frankly.  Indeed, a magazine that has such a limited circulation can't be expected to be great, but it actually is very, very good as a rule.

This issue was on transitions, as noted, mostly, and it had some truly excellent articles.  One was about retiring Wyoming Supreme Court Justice Keith Kautz, who was a great judge.  I liked the question he was asked about his favorite quotes, with the answer being:

I have two: 

1. Encouragement is the oxygen of the soul. 

2. The greatest day in your life or mine, the day we truly grow up, is the day when we take responsibility for our own attitudes.

Those are both pretty profound.  Nothing will burn a person out quicker than to work with people who only criticize them. And taking responsibility for your own attitudes is existentially a magnus opus.  I don't know that many people fully ever manage to do that, myself included.

Kautz is retiring as he's hit the statutory maximum for a judge of age 70.  He didn't seem bitter about it.  Justice Fox, who does seem bitter about the age limit being 70, mentioned it and Justice Kautz retiring in her State of the Judiciary speech.  She did reference it with her dry wit, referring to the age of 70 as "constitutional senility" and Kautz was in the audience.

An attempt at dry wit, I think, was made by the Bar President in her opening article of the issue, which was about a long time assistant retiring.  She had the line:

I always thought that money, fame, and power brought the greatest happiness, but according to the 80-year-old Harvard Study of Adult Development, close relationships with others is what really keeps us happy.

I'm pretty sure the first part of that was intended as a joke.

Her advice seems pretty standard, however, that being:

First, people have an innate desire to have a sense of purpose and meaning. When retirement comes, sometimes that sense of purpose can be lost. So, after taking some time off, it is good to start thinking about something meaningful that will fill the days. This could be volunteering, substitute teaching, or mentoring. It could also include learning a new skill (such as a new language), picking up a new hobby or seeing new places. 

Second, try to maintain and/or enhance social connections with others. I always thought that money, fame, and power brought the greatest happiness, but according to the 80-year-old Harvard Study of Adult Development, close relationships with others is what really keeps us happy. In fact, these ties help delay mental and physical decline, and are better predictors of long and happy lives than social class, IQ, or even genes.

Third, stay physically active as much as possible. Studies show that when someone retires, sedentary activities, such as watching television, increase dramatically. While watching extra television is not necessarily a bad thing in and of itself, much has been written about the link between longevity and good physical health. So, please try and enjoy our state as much as possible by spending time outside running, hiking or skiing.

Probably all solid advice. 

Indeed, it causes me to recall that I recently was speaking to a cousin of mine who is retired from Federal service and who is keeping pretty busy.  We were speaking on a grim topic, which caused me to joke that in old age I was going to take up grizzly bear wrestling.  He stated he was going to take up heavy drinking (he doesn't drink) as that's what so many of his retired colleagues seem to be doing, to the point of death.

Grim.

Another article was about retirement planning itself, which didn't mention grizzly bear wrestling or heavy drinking.  It was frankly really good, which is very much the exception to the rule in lawyers magazines. Usually in lawyer magazines and articles, the "planning" is about how you can go on practicing law for an additional ten years after you are dead.  The articles are about how in "retirement" you can go from litigation to some other field of law, or perhaps switch from defense to plaintiff's work, or something equally moronic.  This article wasn't that way at all.  Indeed, it acknowledged:

Arthur C. Brooks, former president of the American Enterprise Institute and now a Harvard Business School professor, concluded in a July 2019 Atlantic article that professional decline is inevitable sooner or later, simply as the result of aging.

About time somebody said that.  I've practiced against one lawyer who was a physical wreck and in clear mental decline, but was "never going to retire".  He did, but I think it was because his (family owned) firm basically gave him a back room and things to pretend to do.  Not very dignified. He probably doesn't actually know that he is retired.  I used to ask his son how he was doing and to say hello, but it was clear it was an embarrassing topic, and he didn't want to have it come up.

I know another lawyer here in town, who is very physically fit I'll note, who is practicing law actively, not part-time, in his early 70s and declares that he'll never retire.  How boring can you be?

I get that with certain occupations that are real vocations. But let's face it, most of the professions aren't.  People may declare that they love being an accountant, or they love being a lawyer, or they love being an actuary, but they are lying.  Shoot, they probably are lying if they say that about engineering.  Farming, teaching, maybe medicine, the ministry, those are intrinsically different.  

Indeed, because, in my arriving old age, my health has taken a beating the last few years one of my newer doctors, whose son was a high-powered lawyer in California and is now a Federal District Court judge in that state, asks me every time about my work.  "You are a lawyer?".  And he always asks, in the form of a statement, "And you love it".  I'm not sure why that question is necessary to my medical treatment, but as its asked every time, maybe it is.  Maybe it's because lawyers are so famously associated with depression, alcoholism and drug abuse that the medical profession regards it as necessary.  Who knows. Anyhow, after doing it for over 30 years it'd be surprising if I broke down and started sobbing about it or something, but there are a lot of other things I'm interested in too.  Having said that, I don't want to chat to somebody I barely know about those topics either.

Going back for a second, on vocations that make sense that people keep on keeping on in them, at least some of those actually have mandatory retirement ages, where the law allows it.  I don't know about physicians, I think not, but there aren't that many that practice into old age, and I've been told that's because there's a general feeling that mental acuity decline in the late 40s and the practice advances so fast that you start to become dangerous to your patients.  That's particularly true of surgeons, not all physicians, so you will see some practice into relatively old age.

In our diocese, Catholic Priests must retire at 70.  We hear a lot about there being a shortage of Priests, although the reasons for that are debatable (Wyoming has never produced sufficient numbers of Priests for its own needs) but the Diocese nonetheless feels that 70, they need to retire, which usually means being quasi part-time.  They can't be the pastors at a parish, for example.  

Under Canon 401 of the 1983 Code of Canon Law all Catholid bishops must submit their resignation to the Pope at the age of 75.

It's a good policy.

Changing gears, even the back page interview, which is always of a practicing lawyer, was good for a change.  It is occasionally, I'll admit, but more often than not it's an interview of somebody who just graduated from law school and is touring Patagonia or something. . . i.e., they haven't practiced law yet.  This one was of a lawyer who has over 30 years under his belt and noted:

I was the only kid in my elementary school (and perhaps the only attorney in Wyoming) whose  dad has been a matador de toros.

I'll bet that's right. 

The 2024 Wyoming Legislative Session. Pulling into the station (Part 2)

The legislature convene on February 12, and the committees are presently busy for this year's budget session.

As political junkies know, every other session of the legislature if a budget session, which theoretically means that the salon only deals with the budget.  The assembly can consider regular bills, but it requires more support to put the bills out on the floor, so its more difficult.

Some bills have been kicked around in the news, but that doesn't really mean that they're going to be out on the floor, so it can be a bit confusing.  One such bill is this one, which was reported on in one of the online journals today.

A complete list of bills, at the time of this post, are below:

HB0002 Nonresident fishing license fee increase. Travel Bill Number Assigned 11/30/2023

HB0003 Property tax exemption for long-term homeowners. Revenue Bill Number Assigned 11/30/2023

HB0004 Property tax refund program. Revenue Bill Number Assigned 11/30/2023

HB0005 Behavioral health redesign amendments. Labor Bill Number Assigned 11/30/2023

HB0006 Light and high profile vehicle closures. Transportation Bill Number Assigned 12/05/2023

HB0007 Alternative fuel tax-electricity amendments. Transportation Bill Number Assigned 12/05/2023

HB0008 Commercial driver license-hazardous materials endorsement. Transportation Bill Number Assigned 12/05/2023

HB0009 Fuel tax-licensee information deadline. Transportation Bill Number Assigned 12/05/2023

HB0010 Grace period-state land lease renewals. Agriculture Bill Number Assigned 12/05/2023

HB0011 State land lease amendments. Agriculture Bill Number Assigned 12/05/2023

HB0012 Wyoming dairy marketing act-repeal. Agriculture Bill Number Assigned 12/05/2023

HB0013 Flow-through pools-exemption. Agriculture Bill Number Assigned 12/05/2023

HB0014 Prior authorization regulations. Labor Bill Number Assigned 12/07/2023

HB0015 Health insurance-reimbursement of overpayments. Labor Bill Number Assigned 12/07/2023

HB0016 Sutton state archaeological site-legal description. Travel Bill Number Assigned 12/11/2023

HB0017 Fishing outfitters and guides-registration of fishing boats. Travel Bill Number Assigned 12/11/2023

HB0018 Property tax-inflation cap. Revenue Bill Number Assigned 12/11/2023

HB0019 Education savings accounts. Education Bill Number Assigned 12/12/2023

HB0020 School finance-regional cost adjustment study. Education Bill Number Assigned 12/12/2023

HB0021 Charter school leasing. Sel Sch Fac Bill Number Assigned 12/14/2023

HB0022 Sales tax revisions. Revenue Bill Number Assigned 12/15/2023

HB0023 Vehicle registration e-certificate and grace period. Larson, JT Bill Number Assigned 12/21/2023

HB0024 Certificate of need repeal. Labor Bill Number Assigned 12/21/2023

HB0025 Medicaid-third party payor conditions. Labor Bill Number Assigned 12/21/2023

HB0026 Emergency protective services-effective period. Judiciary Bill Number Assigned 12/21/2023

HB0027 DFS and law enforcement-cross reporting. Judiciary Bill Number Assigned 12/21/2023

HB0028 Interference with parent-child contact. Judiciary Bill Number Assigned 12/21/2023

HB0029 Cold case database and investigations. Judiciary Bill Number Assigned 12/21/2023

HB0030 Controlled Substances Act-possession amendments. Judiciary Bill Number Assigned 12/21/2023

HB0031 Peace officers-records and reporting. Judiciary Bill Number Assigned 12/21/2023

HB0032 Geologic sequestration-unitization amendments. Minerals Bill Number Assigned 01/03/2024

HB0033 Mining operations-blasting requirements. Minerals Bill Number Assigned 01/03/2024

HB0034 Solid waste municipal cease and transfer funding. Minerals Bill Number Assigned 01/03/2024

HB0035 Limitation on environmental rulemaking. Minerals Bill Number Assigned 01/03/2024

HB0036 Natural Resource Protection Act. Fed Nat Res Bill Number Assigned 01/03/2024

HB0037 Election offenses-intimidation. Corporations Bill Number Assigned 01/03/2024

HB0038 Voter qualifications-durational residency requirement. Corporations Bill Number Assigned 01/03/2024

HB0039 Campaign reporting. Corporations Bill Number Assigned 01/03/2024

HB0040 School district trustee oath of office. Corporations Bill Number Assigned 01/03/2024

HB0041 Candidates for state legislature-residency requirement. Corporations Bill Number Assigned 01/03/2024

HB0042 Prohibition on private funds for conducting elections. Corporations Bill Number Assigned 01/03/2024

HB0043 State forestry good neighbor-positions. Fed Nat Res Bill Number Assigned 01/03/2024

HB0044 Parental rights in minor child’s health care. Labor Bill Number Assigned 01/04/2024

HB0045 Property tax exemption-residential structures. Crago Bill Number Assigned 01/05/2024

HB0046 Chancery court-timeline for resolution of disputes. Walters Bill Number Assigned 01/08/2024

HB0047 Solid waste-illegal dumping remediation grants. Penn Bill Number Assigned 01/08/2024

HB0048 Renaming the deaf, dumb and blind account. Conrad Bill Number Assigned 01/09/2024

HB0049 By the people act. Penn Bill Number Assigned 01/09/2024

HB0050 What is a Woman Act. Ward Bill Number Assigned 01/09/2024

HB0051 Public indecency-intimidation. Neiman Bill Number Assigned 01/09/2024

HB0052 Property tax-homestead exemption. Sommers Bill Number Assigned 01/10/2024

HB0053 Public health emergency-definition amendments. Ward Bill Number Assigned 01/10/2024

HB0054 Wyoming Reads Day. Washut Bill Number Assigned 01/10/2024

HB0055 State budgeting and reserves-account repeal. Cap Fin & Inv Bill Number Assigned 01/10/2024

HB0056 State budgeting and reserves-general funds. Cap Fin & Inv Bill Number Assigned 01/10/2024

HJ0001 Property tax-classes of property and residential value. Revenue Bill Number Assigned 12/11/2023

HJ0002 Political expenditures. Corporations Bill Number Assigned 01/03/2024

SF0003 State employee leave for volunteer fire or volunteer EMS. Labor Bill Number Assigned 11/30/2023

SF0004 Rehiring retired firefighters-continued retirement benefits. Labor Bill Number Assigned 11/30/2023

SF0005 Organ transplant recipient protection. Labor Bill Number Assigned 11/30/2023

SF0006 Nursing home administrators-temporary licenses. Labor Bill Number Assigned 11/30/2023

SF0007 Behavioral health redesign-vulnerable adults. Labor Bill Number Assigned 11/30/2023

SF0008 Health insurance for volunteer emergency responders. Labor Bill Number Assigned 11/30/2023

SF0009 Parental rights in education-1. Education Bill Number Assigned 12/04/2023

SF0010 Eminent domain-energy collector systems. Agriculture Bill Number Assigned 12/04/2023

SF0011 Eminent domain energy collector systems amendments. Agriculture Bill Number Assigned 12/04/2023

SF0012 Meat processing plants-hides and carcasses. Agriculture Bill Number Assigned 12/04/2023

SF0013 Federal land use plans-legal actions authorized. Agriculture Bill Number Assigned 12/04/2023

SF0014 State fair board-powers and responsibilities. Agriculture Bill Number Assigned 12/04/2023

SF0015 Acceptance of retrocession-federal military installations. Transportation Bill Number Assigned 12/07/2023

SF0016 Military department emergency fire suppression account. Transportation Bill Number Assigned 12/07/2023

SF0017 Plane coordinates system-amendments. Transportation Bill Number Assigned 12/07/2023

SF0018 Indian child welfare act-safe haven amendments. Tribal Relations Bill Number Assigned 12/14/2023

SF0019 Developmental preschool funding. Education Bill Number Assigned 12/14/2023

SF0020 Electricity rates for costs that do not benefit Wyoming. Corporations Bill Number Assigned 12/18/2023

SF0021 Public utilities-net power cost sharing ratio. Corporations Bill Number Assigned 12/18/2023

SF0022 Public service commission-electricity reliability. Corporations Bill Number Assigned 12/18/2023

SF0023 Public utilities-energy resource procurement. Corporations Bill Number Assigned 12/18/2023

SF0024 Public service commission-integrated resource plans. Corporations Bill Number Assigned 12/18/2023

SF0025 Reclamation and decommissioning costs. Corporations Bill Number Assigned 12/18/2023

SF0026 Special district vacancies. Corporations Bill Number Assigned 12/18/2023

SF0027 Special districts bond elections exception. Corporations Bill Number Assigned 12/18/2023

SF0028 Federal natural resource management coordinator. Fed Nat Res Bill Number Assigned 12/18/2023

SF0029 Major political parties-state central party voting members. Case Bill Number Assigned 12/18/2023

SF0030 Influencing jurors and witnesses-judges amendment. Judiciary Bill Number Assigned 12/19/2023

SF0031 Sex offender registration-promoting obscenity. Judiciary Bill Number Assigned 12/19/2023

SF0032 Hemp-limitations on psychoactive substances. Judiciary Bill Number Assigned 12/19/2023

SF0033 Wyoming rural attorney recruitment program. Judiciary Bill Number Assigned 12/19/2023

SF0034 Sex offender registration-registerable offenses. Judiciary Bill Number Assigned 12/19/2023

SF0035 Public records-DOC investigations. Judiciary Bill Number Assigned 12/19/2023

SF0036 Uniform Child Abduction Prevention Act. Judiciary Bill Number Assigned 12/19/2023

SF0037 Indian child welfare act-delinquency amendments. Tribal Relations Bill Number Assigned 12/26/2023

SF0038 Financial reporting amendments-2. Mgt Audit Bill Number Assigned 01/04/2024

SF0039 Firefighters recruitment film. Labor Bill Number Assigned 01/05/2024

SF0040 Outdoor Recreation and Tourism Trust Fund Administration. Travel Bill Number Assigned 01/08/2024

SF0041 Banking division-classification and salary exemptions. Minerals Bill Number Assigned 01/09/2024

SF0042 Low-carbon reliable energy standards-amendments. Minerals Bill Number Assigned 01/09/2024

SF0043 Pore space-severances and separate conveyances prohibited. Minerals Bill Number Assigned 01/09/2024

SF0044 Limited mining operations-amendments. Minerals Bill Number Assigned 01/09/2024

Some interesting ones:

2024

STATE OF WYOMING

24LSO-0344

HOUSE BILL NO. HB0036

Natural Resource Protection Act.

Sponsored by: Select Federal Natural Resource Management Committee

A BILL

for

AN ACT relating to protection of constitutional rights; providing a declaration of authority and policy; prohibiting the enforcement of federal rules or regulations regarding federal land management as specified; providing an exception; and providing for an effective date.

Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Wyoming:

Section 1.  W.S. 9‑14‑301 through 9‑14‑303 are created to read:

ARTICLE 3

NATURAL RESOURCE PROTECTION ACT

9‑14‑301.  Short title.

This article shall be known and may be cited as the "Natural Resource Protection Act."

9‑14‑302.  Declaration of authority and policy.

(a)  The Natural Resource Protection Act is enacted under the authority of the tenth amendment to the United States constitution and Wyoming's agreement with the United States that the state adopted when it joined the union under the United States constitution's system of dual sovereignty.

(b)  The legislature finds and declares:

(i)  The federal government shall comply with federal law when administering federal lands;

(ii)  The federal government arbitrarily restricting significant amounts of federal lands from public use is contrary to managing federal land under principles of multiple use and sustained yield;

(iii)  Any failure by the federal government to abide by the law undermines the rule of law that is vital to our system of government. 

9‑14‑303.  Prohibiting the enforcement of federal regulation regarding federal land management; penalty.

(a)  Upon a determination by the governor, with advice from the attorney general, that an executive order, final rule or regulation of the federal government does not comply with federal laws regarding federal land management and upon providing notice, this state and all political subdivisions of this state shall not use any personnel, funds appropriated by the legislature or any other source of funds that originate within the state of Wyoming to enforce or administer that federal executive order, final rule or regulation. The governor shall not revoke a valid primacy agreement with a federal agency over the regulation and enforcement of a federal law or program until a court of competent jurisdiction determines the federal executive order, final rule or regulation is unlawful.

(b)  Nothing in this act shall limit or restrict a public officer, as defined by W.S. 6‑5‑101(a)(v), from providing assistance to federal authorities for purposes not specifically identified in subsection (a) of this section. Nothing in this act shall be construed to prohibit any governmental entity from accepting federal funds for law enforcement purposes.

Section 2.  This act is effective July 1, 2024.

This is probably an illegal proposal, given as it intrudes on Federal supremacy.

One addressing residence requirements for running for office has been introduced.

2024

STATE OF WYOMING

4LSO-0094

HOUSE BILL NO. HB0041

Candidates for state legislature-residency requirement.

Sponsored by: Joint Corporations, Elections & Political Subdivisions Interim Committee

A BILL

for

AN ACT relating to elections; clarifying the residency requirement for candidates for the state legislature; and providing for an effective date.

Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Wyoming:

Section 1.  W.S. 22‑5‑102(a)(intro) and (ii) is amended to read:

22‑5‑102.  Eligibility to be a candidate for state legislature; residency.

(a)  For the purpose of meeting residency requirements of the Wyoming constitution, a person shall not be a candidate for the state legislature from a legislative district unless he has been a resident of that legislative district for at least one (1) year next preceding his before the date of the applicable general election. In any general election year in which a plan of legislative districts is required but has not been enacted into law at least one (1) year prior to the applicable filing periods, a person may be a candidate for the state legislature from a legislative district if he:

(ii)  Has been a resident of a county for at least one (1) year next preceding his before the date of the applicable general election in which any portion of that legislative district is located.

Section 2.  This act is effective July 1, 2024.

One that has already been reported on:

HOUSE BILL NO. HB0050

What is a Woman Act.

Sponsored by: Representative(s) Ward, Allemand, Angelos, Bear, Haroldson, Hornok, Jennings, Locke, Neiman, Ottman, Pendergraft, Penn, Rodriguez-Williams, Slagle, Smith and Strock

A BILL

fod

AN ACT relating to common law, statutes and rules of construction; specifying definitions and standards for the application of a person's biological sex in law, rules or regulations; providing for the law to distinguish between accommodations for males and females; requiring the collection of vital statistics and other data to identify persons as male or female at birth; and providing for an effective date.

Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Wyoming:

Section 1.  W.S. 8‑1‑110 is created to read:

8‑1‑110.  References to males and females; separate accommodations for males and females; data reporting requirements.

(a)  Notwithstanding any other provision of law, with respect to the application of a person's biological sex under any law or rule and regulation in this state, the following definitions and standards shall apply:

(i)  A person's "sex" means the person's biological sex, either male or female, at birth;

(ii)  "Female" means a person whose biological reproductive system is developed to produce ova and/or who exhibits XX chromosomes and does not exhibit a Y chromosome;

(iii)  "Male" means a person whose biological reproductive system is developed to fertilize the ova of a female and/or who exhibits XY chromosomes or exhibits a Y chromosome;

(iv)  The terms "woman" and "girl" refer to human females, and the terms "man" and "boy" refer to human males;

(v)  "Mother" means a parent of the female sex;

(vi)  "Father" means a parent of the male sex;

(vii)  With respect to biological sex, the term "equal" does not mean "same" or "identical";

(viii)  With respect to biological sex, separate accommodations are not inherently unequal; and

(ix)  A person born with a medically recognized condition of a "disorder or difference in sex development" shall be provided legal protections and accommodations afforded under the Americans with Disabilities Act, as amended, and any other applicable Wyoming law.

(b)  The legislature finds that laws, rules and regulations that distinguish between the sexes are subject to intermediate constitutional scrutiny. Intermediate constitutional scrutiny forbids unfair discrimination against similarly situated male and female persons but allows the law to distinguish between the sexes where such distinctions are substantially related to important governmental objectives.

(c)  Notwithstanding any provision of law to the contrary, laws, rules and regulations that recognize or enforce distinctions between the sexes with respect to athletics, prisons or other detention facilities, domestic violence shelters, rape crisis centers, locker rooms, restrooms and other areas where safety or privacy are implicated and that result in separate accommodations between the sexes are substantially related to the important governmental objectives of protecting the health, safety and privacy of persons in such circumstances.

(d)  Any school district, or public school thereof, and any state agency, department, office or other political subdivision that collects vital statistics for the purpose of complying with anti‑discrimination laws or for the purpose of gathering accurate public health, crime, economic or other data shall identify each person who is part of the collected data set as either male or female consistent with the persons sex at birth.

Section 2.  This act is effective immediately upon completion of all acts necessary for a bill to become law as provided by Article 4, Section 8 of the Wyoming Constitution

The bill is presently with the LSO.

An attorney recruitment bill has been proposed.

2024

STATE OF WYOMING

24LSO-0061

SENATE FILE NO. SF0033

Wyoming rural attorney recruitment program.

Sponsored by: Joint Judiciary Interim Committee

A BILL

for

AN ACT relating to attorneys-at-law; establishing the rural attorney recruitment pilot program; specifying eligibility requirements for counties and attorneys to participate in the program; specifying administration, oversight and payment obligations for the program; requiring reports; providing a sunset date for the program; authorizing the adoption of rules, policies and procedures; providing an appropriation; and providing for an effective date.

Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Wyoming:

Section 1.  W.S. 33‑5‑201 through 33‑5‑203 are created to read:

ARTICLE 2

RURAL ATTORNEY RECRUITMENT PROGRAM

33‑5‑201.  Rural attorney recruitment program established; findings; program requirements; county qualifications; annual reports.

(a)  In light of the shortage of attorneys practicing law in rural Wyoming counties, the legislature finds that the establishment of a rural attorney recruitment program constitutes a valid public purpose, of primary benefit to the citizens of the state of Wyoming.

(b)  The Wyoming state bar may establish a rural attorney recruitment program to assist rural Wyoming counties in recruiting attorneys to practice law in those counties.

(c)  Each county eligible under this subsection may apply to the Wyoming state bar to participate in the program. A county is eligible to participate in the program if the county:

(i)  Has a population of not greater than twenty‑five thousand (25,000);

(ii)  Has an average of not greater than one and one‑half (1.5) qualified attorneys in the county for every one thousand (1,000) residents. As used in this paragraph, "qualified attorney" means an attorney who provides legal services to private citizens on a fee basis for an average of not less than twenty (20) hours per week. "Qualified attorney" shall not include an attorney who is a full‑time judge, prosecutor, public defender, judicial clerk, in‑house counsel, trust officer and any licensed attorney who is in retired status or who is not engaged in the practice of law;

(iii)  Agrees to provide the county share of the incentive payment required under this article;

(iv)  Is determined to be eligible to participate in the program by the Wyoming state bar.

(d)  Before determining a county's eligibility, the Wyoming state bar shall conduct an assessment to evaluate the county's need for an attorney and the county's ability to sustain and support an attorney. The Wyoming state bar shall maintain a list of counties that have been assessed and are eligible to participate in the program under this article. The Wyoming state bar may revise any county assessment or conduct a new assessment as the Wyoming State bar deems necessary to reflect any change in a county's eligibility.

(e)  In selecting eligible counties to participate in the program, the Wyoming state bar shall consider:

(i)  The county's demographics;

(ii)  The number of attorneys in the county and the number of attorneys projected to be practicing in the county over the next five (5) years;

(iii)  Any recommendations from the district judges and circuit judges of the county;

(iv)  The county's economic development programs;

(v)  The county's geographical location relative to other counties participating in the program;

(vi)  An evaluation of any attorney or applicant for admission to the state bar seeking to practice in the county as a program participant, including the attorney's or applicant's previous or existing ties to the county;

(vii)  Any prior participation of the county in the program;

(viii)  Any other factor that the Wyoming state bar deems necessary.

(f)  A participating eligible county may enter into agreements to assist the county in meeting the county's obligations for participating in the program.

(g)  Not later than October 1, 2024 and each October 1 thereafter that the program is in effect, the Wyoming state bar shall submit an annual report to the joint judiciary interim committee on the activities of the program. Each report shall include information on the number of attorneys and counties participating in the program, the amount of incentive payments made to attorneys under the program, the general status of the program and any recommendations for continuing, modifying or ending the program.

33‑5‑202.  Rural attorney recruitment program; attorney requirements; incentive payments; termination of program.

(a)  Except as otherwise provided in this subsection, any attorney licensed to practice law in Wyoming or an applicant for admission to the Wyoming state bar may apply to the Wyoming state bar to participate in the rural attorney recruitment program established under this article. No attorney or applicant shall participate in the program if the attorney or applicant has previously participated in the program or has previously participated in any other state or federal scholarship, loan repayment or tuition reimbursement program that obligated the attorney to provide legal services in an underserved area.

(b)  Not more than five (5) attorneys shall participate in the program established under this article at any one (1) time.

(c)  Subject to available funding and as consideration for providing legal services in an eligible county, each attorney approved by the Wyoming state bar to participate in the program shall be entitled to receive an incentive payment in five (5) equal annual installments. Each annual incentive payment shall be paid on or after July 1 of each year. Each annual incentive payment shall be in an amount equal to ninety percent (90%) of the University of Wyoming college of law resident tuition for thirty (30) credit hours and annual fees as of July 1, 2024.

(d)  Subject to available funding, the supreme court shall make each incentive payment to the participating attorney. The Wyoming state bar and each participating county shall remit its share of the incentive payment to the supreme court in a manner and by a date specified by the supreme court. The Wyoming state bar shall certify to the supreme court that a participating attorney has completed all annual program requirements and that the participating attorney is entitled to the incentive payment for the applicable year. The responsibility for incentive payments under this section shall be as follows:

(i)  Fifty percent (50%) of the incentive payments shall be from funds appropriated to the supreme court;

(ii)  Thirty‑five percent (35%) of the incentive payments shall be provided by each county paying for attorneys participating in the program in the county;

(iii)  Fifteen percent (15%) of the incentive payments shall be provided by the Wyoming state bar from nonstate funds.

(e)  Subject to available funding for the program, each attorney participating in the program shall enter into an agreement with the supreme court, the participating county and the Wyoming state bar that obligates the attorney to practice law full‑time in the participating county for not less than five (5) years. As part of the agreement required under this subsection, each participating attorney shall agree to reside in the participating county for the period in which the attorney practices law in the participating county under the program. No agreement shall be effective until it is filed with and approved by the Wyoming state bar.

(f)  Any attorney who receives an incentive payment under this article and subsequently breaches the agreement entered into under subsection (e) of this section shall repay all funds received under this article pursuant to terms and conditions established by the supreme court. Failure to repay funds as required by this subsection shall subject the attorney to license suspension.

(g)  The Wyoming state bar may promulgate any policies or procedures necessary to implement this article.  The supreme court may promulgate any rules necessary to implement this article.

(h)  The program established under this article shall cease on June 30, 2029, provided that attorneys participating in the program as of June 30, 2029 shall complete their obligation and receive payments as authorized by this article.

33‑5‑203.  Sunset.

(a)  W.S. 33‑5‑201 and 33‑5‑202 are repealed effective July 1, 2029.

(b)  Notwithstanding subsection (a) of this section, attorneys participating in the rural attorney pilot program authorized in W.S. 33‑5‑201 and 33‑5‑202 shall complete the requirements of the program and shall be entitled to the authorized payments in accordance with W.S. 33‑5‑201 and 33‑5‑202 as provided on June 30, 2029.

Section 2.  There is appropriated one hundred ninety‑seven thousand three hundred seventy‑five dollars ($197,375.00) from the general fund to the supreme court for the period beginning with the effective date of this act and ending June 30, 2029 to be expended only for purposes of providing incentive payments for the rural attorney recruitment program established under this act. This appropriation shall not be transferred or expended for any other purpose. Notwithstanding W.S. 9‑2‑1008, 9‑2‑1012(e) and 9‑4‑207, this appropriation shall not revert until June 30, 2029.

Section 3.  This act is effective July 1, 2024.

What will really be required to address this need is to do away with the UBE or bar exams of that type, as we've written about before.

January 23, 2024.

The legislature will consider Chloe's law again this session:

2024

STATE OF WYOMING

24LSO-0003

HOUSE BILL NO. HB0063

Sex and gender changes for children-prohibited.

Sponsored by: Representative(s) Larsen, L and Stith and Senator(s) Baldwin, Dockstader and Schuler

A BILL

for

AN ACT relating to public health and safety; prohibiting physicians from performing procedures for children related to gender transitioning and gender reassignment; providing exceptions; providing definitions; specifying applicability; authorizing rulemaking; and providing for effective dates.

Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Wyoming:

Section 1.  W.S. 35‑4‑1001 is created to read:

ARTICLE 10

GENDER‑RELATED PROCEDURES

35‑4‑1001.  Gender reassignment procedures for children prohibited.

(a)  As used in this section:

(i)  "Child" means a person who is younger than eighteen (18) years of age;

(ii)  "Physician" means any person licensed to practice medicine in this state by the state board of medicine under the Medical Practice Act.

(b)  No physician shall, for purposes of transitioning a child's biological sex to a sex different than the sex assigned at birth as determined by the sex organs, chromosomes and endogenous profiles of the child, or for purposes of affirming the child's perception of the child's sex if that perception is inconsistent with the child's biological sex:

(i)  Perform a surgery that sterilizes the child, including castration, vasectomy, hysterectomy, oophorectomy, metoidioplasty, orchiectomy, penectomy, phalloplasty and vaginoplasty;

(ii)  Perform a mastectomy.

(c)  This section shall not apply to:

(i)  Procedures or treatments that are performed with the consent of the child's parent or guardian and are for a child who is born with a medically verifiable genetic disorder of sex development, including but not limited to 46, XX chromosomes with virilization, 46, XY with undervirilization or both ovarian and testicular tissue;

(ii)  Any procedure or treatment that is performed with the consent of the child's parent or guardian and is for a child with medically verifiable central precocious puberty.

Section 2.  W.S. 35‑4‑1001, as created by section 1 of this act, shall apply only to conduct or procedures occurring on and after the effective date of this act.

Section 3.  The state board of medicine may promulgate any rules necessary to implement this act.

Section 4.  

(a)  Except as provided in subsection (b) of this section, this act is effective July 1, 2024.

(b)  Sections 3 and 4 of this act are effective immediately upon completion of all acts necessary for a bill to become law as provided by Article 4, Section 8 of the Wyoming Constitution.

Seeking to keep themselves an irrelevant minority in the legislature, Democrats have introduced an ifanticide protection bill.

2024

STATE OF WYOMING

24LSO-0264

HOUSE BILL NO. HB0076

Reproductive Freedom Act.

Sponsored by: Representative(s) Yin, Chestek, Provenza, Sherwood and Storer and Senator(s) Gierau and Rothfuss

A BILL

for

AN ACT relating to abortion; creating the Reproductive Freedom Act; specifying the public policy of the state concerning reproductive rights; prohibiting the state from denying or interfering with a person's right to have an abortion prior to viability of the fetus or to protect the person's life or health; prohibiting unauthorized abortions; specifying a penalty; providing definitions; repealing conflicting provisions; and providing for an effective date.

Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Wyoming:

Section 1.  W.S. 35‑6‑140 through 35‑6‑149 are created to read:

35‑6‑140.  Short title.

This act shall be known and may be cited as the "Reproductive Freedom Act."

35‑6‑141.  Public policy.

(a)  It is the public policy of the state of Wyoming that:

(i)  Every person has the right to freedom from governmental interference with respect to personal reproductive decisions;

(ii)  Every person has the right to choose or refuse birth control;

(iii)  Every person has the right to choose or refuse to have an abortion, except as specifically limited by this act;

(iv)  The state shall not deny or interfere with a person's right to choose or refuse to have an abortion, except as specifically permitted by this act;

(v)  The state shall not discriminate against the exercise of these rights in the regulation or provision of benefits, facilities, services or information.

35‑6‑142.  Definitions.

(a)  As used in this act:

(i)  "Abortion" means any medical treatment, medication or procedure intended to induce the termination of a pregnancy except for the purpose of producing a live birth;

(ii)  "Advanced practice registered nurse" means as defined by W.S. 33‑21‑120(a)(i);

(iii)  "Health care provider" means a person who is licensed, certified or otherwise authorized or permitted by the laws of this state to administer health care in the ordinary course of business or practice of a profession;

(iv)  "Physician" means a person licensed to practice medicine as a physician under the Medical Practice Act, W.S. 33‑26‑101 et seq.;

(v)  "Physician assistant" means a person licensed to practice medicine as a physician assistant under the Medical Practice Act, W.S. 33‑26‑101 et seq.;

(vi)  "Pregnancy" means the reproductive process beginning with the implantation of an embryo;

(vii)  "Private medical facility" means any medical facility that is not owned or operated by the state;

(viii)  "State" means the state of Wyoming and any authority, board, commission, department, division or separate operating agency of the executive, legislative or judicial branch of the state of Wyoming, including its political subdivisions;

(ix)  "Viability" means the point in the pregnancy when, in the judgment of the physician, physician assistant, advanced practice registered nurse or other health care provider acting within the provider's scope of practice on the particular facts of the case before the physician, physician assistant, advanced practice registered nurse or other health care provider acting within the health care provider's scope of practice, there is a significant likelihood of the fetus's sustained survival outside the uterus without the application of extraordinary medical measures;

(x)  "This act" means W.S. 35‑6‑140 through 35‑6‑149.

35‑6‑143.  Right to have and provide an abortion.

(a)  The state shall not deny or interfere with a person's right to have an abortion:

(i)  Prior to viability of the fetus; or

(ii)  To protect the person's life or health.

(b)  A physician, physician assistant, advanced practice registered nurse or other health care provider acting within the provider's scope of practice may terminate a pregnancy as permitted by this act.

(c)  A health care provider may assist a physician, physician assistant, advanced practice registered nurse or other health care provider acting within the health care provider's scope of practice in terminating a pregnancy as permitted by this act.

35‑6‑144.  Unauthorized abortions; penalty.

(a)  Unless otherwise authorized by this act, any person who provides medical treatment, provides medication or performs a procedure intended to induce the termination of a pregnancy shall be guilty of a misdemeanor punishable by imprisonment for not more than one (1) year, a fine not to exceed five thousand dollars ($5,000.00), or both.

(b)  Except as provided in subsection (a) of this section, the state shall not penalize, prosecute or otherwise take adverse action against a person for aiding or assisting a person seeking an abortion in exercising the person's right to have an abortion under this act.

(c)  Nothing in this act shall be construed to subject a person upon whom any abortion is performed or attempted to any criminal penalty under this act.

35‑6‑145.  Defense to prosecution.

The good faith judgment of a physician, physician assistant, advanced practice registered nurse or other health care provider acting within the provider's scope of practice as to viability of the fetus or as to the risk to life or health of a person seeking an abortion shall be a complete defense in any proceeding for a violation of this act.

35‑6‑146.  State regulation.

(a)  Any regulation promulgated by the state relating to abortion shall be valid only if:

(i)  The regulation is medically necessary to protect the life or health of the person seeking an abortion;

(ii)  The regulation is consistent with established medical practice; and

(iii)  Of the available alternatives, the regulation imposes the least restrictions on the person's right to have an abortion under this act.

35‑6‑147.  Refusing to participate in an abortion.

(a)  No person or private medical facility shall be required by law or contract to participate in the performance of an abortion if the person or private medical facility objects to participating in the performance of an abortion.

(b)  No person shall be discriminated against in employment or professional privileges because of the person's participation or refusal to participate in the performance of an abortion.

35‑6‑148.  State provided benefits.

If the state provides, directly or by contract, maternity care benefits, services or information through any program administered or funded in whole or in part by the state, the state shall also provide persons otherwise eligible for the program with substantially equivalent benefits, services or information to permit them to voluntarily terminate their pregnancies.

35‑6‑149.  Construction.

This act shall not be construed to define the state's interest in the fetus for any purpose other than the specific provisions of this act.

Section 2.  W.S. 21‑16‑1801 and 35‑6‑120 through 35‑6‑139 are repealed.

Section 3.  This act is effective immediately upon completion of all acts necessary for a bill to become law as provided by Article 4, Section 8 of the Wyoming Constitution.

February 10, 2024

This one is a surprise:

HOUSE BILL NO. HB0115

Donated blood-mRNA disclosure.

Sponsored by: Representative(s) Penn, Angelos, Bear, Davis, Heiner, Hornok, Knapp, Locke, Neiman, Ottman, Pendergraft, Singh, Slagle, Smith, Strock, Styvar, Ward and Winter and Senator(s) Biteman, French, Hutchings and Ide

A BILL

for

AN ACT relating to public health and safety; requiring blood donors to disclose vaccination status as specified; requiring blood packaging to be marked as specified; allowing a person who receives a blood transfusion to request the use of certain blood; and providing for an effective date.

Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Wyoming:

Section 1.  W.S. 35‑34‑101 is created to read:

CHAPTER 34

BLOOD DONATIONS AND VACCINATIONS

35‑34‑101.  Disclosure of mRNA vaccinations for blood donations; labeling; right to request certain blood.

(a)  Any person who collects human blood donations for the purpose of providing blood for human blood transfusion shall require blood donors to disclose whether the blood donor has received a COVID‑19 vaccine or a messenger ribonucleic acid vaccine during the donor's lifetime.

(b)  Blood originating from a donor who has received a COVID‑19 vaccine or a messenger ribonucleic acid vaccine shall be conspicuously marked.

(c)  In a nonemergency situation, as determined by the person providing medical services, a person receiving a blood transfusion shall have the right to request blood based on whether or not the blood originated from a person who has received a COVID‑19 vaccine or a messenger ribonucleic acid vaccine, as long as the requested blood is available.

Section 2.  The department of health shall promulgate all rules necessary to implement this act.

Section 3.  This act is effective July 1, 2024.

I had thought we were largely past the  COVID 19 vaccine matter, but this would suggest not.  I don't expect this bill to go very far. 

Last edition:

The 2024 Wyoming Legislative Session. The Super Early Riser Edition (Part 1)