(WND)—A Wyoming atheist who sued the city of Gillette because city officials didn’t let him deliver an invocation at a city meeting as often as he demanded wanted $24 million for the offense, but now has lost at the state Supreme Court.
It was Bruce Williams who sued Gillette Mayor Shay Lundvall demanding that he should be allowed to deliver invocations at meetings in the same proportion as there are atheists in Wyoming. Pew Research suggests some 3% of Wyoming residents say they are atheist, so Williams presumably was arguing to deliver invocations at 3% of the meetings, meaning about three every eight years if the meetings were monthly.
He had been permitted to deliver his speech at least once a year for the last nine years. But a report at Cowboy State Daily explained he demanded more.
District Judge Stuart S. Healy III originally dismissed the case, explaining the city and mayor have immunity from lawsuits under these circumstances. The state Supreme Court now has agreed, the report explained.
Williams also had complained he was required to cite the Pledge of Allegiance, to which he objected because it includes the words “under God.”
The decision from the high court said, “We acknowledge Mr. Williams’s efforts to convince us to allow his complaint to proceed. However, ‘(the) decision of whether to waive immunity for a governmental entity – belongs to the Wyoming Legislature, not this court.’”
The decision was written by Justice Lynne Boomgaarden. Under Wyoming’s Constitution, the state and its political subdivisions are immune from lawsuits unless the lawmakers authorize them.
Their latest update on that issue came in 1979 when they adopted the Wyoming Governmental Immunity Act which provides permission for lawsuits for specific situations.
That law also, the court ruling said, while allowing some contract lawsuits, is not a tool for launching civil rights fights. That would be, the ruling said, a federal law.
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Independent Journalism Is Dying
Ever since President Trump’s miraculous victory, we’ve heard an incessant drumbeat about how legacy media is dying. This is true. The people have awakened to the reality that they’re being lied to by the self-proclaimed “Arbiters of Truth” for the sake of political expediency, corporate self-protection, and globalist ambitions.
But even as independent journalism rises to fill the void left by legacy media, there is still a huge challenge. Those at the top of independent media like Joe Rogan, Dan Bongino, and Tucker Carlson are thriving and rightly so. They have earned their audience and the financial rewards that come from it. They’ve taken risks and worked hard to get to where they are.
For “the rest of us,” legacy media and their proxies are making it exceptionally difficult to survive, let alone thrive. They still have a stranglehold over the “fact checkers” who have a dramatic impact on readership and viewership. YouTube, Facebook, and Google still stifle us. The freer speech platforms like Rumble and 𝕏 can only reward so many of their popular content creators. For independent journalists on the outside looking in, our only recourse is to rely on affiliates and sponsors.
But even as it seems nearly impossible to make a living, there are blessings that should not be disregarded. By highlighting strong sponsors who share our America First worldview, we have been able to make lifelong connections and even a bit of revenue to help us along. This is why we enjoy symbiotic relationships with companies like MyPillow, Jase Medical, and Promised Grounds. We help them with our recommendations and they reward us with money when our audience buys from them.
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Even our faith-driven precious metals sponsor helps us tremendously while also helping Americans protect their life’s savings. We are blessed to work with them.
Independent media is the future. In many ways, that future is already here. While the phrase, “the more the merrier,” does not apply to this business because there are still some bad actors in the independent media field, there are many great ones that do not get nearly enough attention. We hope to change that one content creator at a time.
Thank you and God Bless,
JD Rucker
