http://www.surfingtheapocalypse.net/cgi-bin/ 

forum.cgi?noframes;read=135020

County sheriffs in Wyoming are insisting that all federal law enforcement officers and personnel 

from federal regulatory agencies must clear all their activities in a Wyoming county with the 

Sheriff's Office. 

Speaking at a press conference following the recent US District Court decision(case 

No 2:96-cv-099-J) Bighorn County Sheriff Dave Mattis stated that all federal officials are 

forbidden to enter his county without his prior approval."If a sheriff doesn't want the Feds in his 

county he has the constitutional power and right to keep them out or ask them to leave or retain 

them in custody."

The court decision came about after Mattis & other members of the Wyoming Sheriffs' Association 

brought a suit against both the BATF and the IRS in the Wyoming federal court district seeking 

restoration of the protections enshrined in the United States Constitution and the Wyoming 

Constitution. The District Court ruled in favor of the sheriffs, stating that, "Wyoming is a 

sovereign state and the duly elected sheriff of a county is the highest law enforcement official 

within a county and has law enforcement powers exceeding that of any other state or federal 

official."

The Wyoming sheriffs are demanding access to all BATF files to verify that the agency is not 

violating provisions of Wyoming law that prohibit the registration of firearms or the keeping of a 

registry of firearm owners. 

The sheriffs are also demanding that federal agencies immediately cease the seizure of private 

property and the impoundment of private bank accounts without regard to due process in state courts.

Sheriff Mattis stated: "I am reacting to the actions of federal employees who have attempted to 

deprive citizens of my county of their privacy, their liberty, and their property without regard to 

constitutional safeguards.



I hope that more sheriffs all across America will join us in protecting their citizensfrom the 

illegal activities of the IRS, EPA, BATF, FBI, or any other federal agency that is operating outside

the confines of constitutional law. Employees of the IRS and the EPA are no longer welcome in 

Bighorn County unless they intend to operate in conformance to constitutional law."



This case is evidence that the Tenth Amendment is not yet dead in the United States. It may also be 

interpreted to mean that political subdivisions of a State are included within the meaning of the 

amendment, or that the powers exercised by a sheriff are an extension of those common law powers 

which the Tenth Amendment explicitly reserves to the People, if they are not granted to the federal 

government and specifically prohibited to the States.

http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a387ec3ea6413.htm



(Comment: Constitutionally the sheriff is the highest and only elected law-enforcement officer in 

the state. Also, agencies that are part of the executive branch do not have jurisdiction outside DC.

To its everlasting disgrace the Legislature of Massachusetts has abolished the Sheriffs in the state

that gave us Lexington, Boston and Concord! This was totally unconstitutional and never should have 

happened! Without the Sheriff you have no elected law enforcement office! The State Troopers are an 

arm of the governor's office and have no constitutional standing.) "Wyoming is a sovereign state 

and the duly elected sheriff is the highest law enforcement official and has law enforcement powers 

exceeding that of any other state or federal offical."

http://uscivilflags.org