Wyoming Checkerboard Lawsuit 2014: A Legal Battle for Wild Horses

August 11, 2014

AWHC Contributor

In 2014, the American Wild Horse Conservation (formerly American Wild Horse Preservation), The Cloud Foundation, and Return to Freedom filed a lawsuit to halt the Bureau of Land Management's (BLM) proposed roundup of over 800 wild horses from the Adobe Town, Salt Wells Creek, and Divide Basin Herd Management Areas (HMAs) in Wyoming. Initially scheduled for August 20, the roundup was postponed due to the lawsuit until at least September 1. Despite a denied motion for a Preliminary Injunction, the helicopter capture operation commenced on September 15 and concluded on October 9, 2014, resulting in the removal of 1,263 federally-protected wild horses from public and private lands.

On March 2, 2015, a hearing took place before U.S. District Court Judge Nancy Freudenthal at the University of Wyoming College of Law in Laramie. Less than 24 hours later, Judge Freudenthal issued her decision.

On June 19, 2015, AWHC and coalition partners filed a notice to appeal this decision. On November 20, 2015, William A. Eubanks of Meyer Glitzenstein and Eubanks filed the opening brief at the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals. A week later, a group of environmental law professors filed an Amicus brief supporting the appeal.

Simultaneously, the BLM opened a public comment period on an Environmental Assessment to address the agency's violations of the National Environmental Policy Act, as affirmed by Judge Freudenthal's decision.