From the Jackson Hole News & Guide
A legal turf war is taking shape with a federal judge in Wyoming blasting his counterpart in the nation’s capital for deciding a dispute over banning snowmobiles from Yellowstone National Park.
U.S. District Judge Clarence Brimmer said he “may ignore” a ruling issued by his peer in Washington D.C. during hearings in Cheyenne. “I don’t see any reason why a judge 2,000 miles from here ought to be deciding things that affect the people of Wyoming,” Brimmer said of U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan. Associated Press reported the remarks.
But conservationists counter that the nation’s capital is both a legal and appropriate venue for a case involving the nation’s first park.
“It’s not Yellowstone Wyoming Park; it’s Yellowstone National Park,” Doug Honnold, an Earthjustice attorney representing several conservation groups, said in a telephone interview Tuesday.